Pokemon: The Ultimate Tale
by VinceGrey21
Summary: This is a rewrite of the pokemon franchise. Ash is smart, calm, and trains his pokemon right. He wakes up on time and gets a proper starter. Professor Oak also gives him a mysterious egg as a gift. This story will cover all basis of the pokemon world, it will follow a similar but modified (Much more badass) story line to the anime. AU, multiple new captures and evolutions. AshX?
1. Pallet Town: A Friendly Encounter!

**Author Notes: I decided on writing a journey story, so this is it. If you have any worries about A Master Rises I havn't abandoned it I just want to write this one as well. I will probably update A Master Rises sometime this week so be on the look out for it.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own pokemon, word.**

* * *

" Nidorino begins the battle with a horn attack! Oh, but Gengar bounces right back with Hypnosis. And there it is the hypnosis power of Gengar!" The broadcaster on the television bellowed in excitement as he announced the battle between Elite four member's Agatha and Bruno.

Far across the country of Kanto in a small town named Pallet a ten-year old boy watches the battle between elites on his t.v. with a fierce look in his eyes. The boy stood about 5-feet tall and had messy raven black hair, the results of always wearing a hat. He had somewhat of a tan, white but definitely not pale. _Finally the time has come. Now that I am ten, I can finally get my Pokemon license. Tomorrow my journey begins._

The boy stood inches away from his television screen, carefully analyzing the battle unfolding in front of him. _Tomorrow is my first step in becoming a pokemon master. I Ash ketchum, will go farther than anyone has ever gone before. _

Ash looked at his clock and noticed the time, 10:00 p.m. he understood that in order for him to be successful on his first day he was going to need to get a good night's rest. Just as this thought crossed his mind he heard the door to his room open.

"Ash Ketchum what are you doing up right now, you should already be asleep!" Standing in the doorway was a woman probably somewhere in her mid-thirties. She had long brown hair, and was wearing a pink blouse and a blue skirt that ended at her knees.

"I was just thinking the same thing Mom. I'm about to go to sleep right now."

Ash's mother Delia sighed before taking the remote to the television out of her son's hand. "Well, since you're still awake, a few more minutes shouldn't make a difference." She changed the channel, and on the screen was a man that looked to be in his mid-fifties wearing a lab coat.

"Professor Oak is doing a short special on the Kanto region starters, watch this before going to bed you might learn something." Delia stated in a soothing tone.

"Sure Mom, I might as well." As soon as Delia exited the room Ash turned the television off. Over the last couple months he had already done extensive research on the three starters and didn't see the point in exhausting himself any longer. _I already know which one I want._

Before shutting off the lights to his room Ash made sure to set his alarm clock to 7:00 o'clock a.m. an hour before he had to be at Professor Oak's lab to receive his first pokemon.

Ash than turned off the lights and made his way over to his bed carefully, making sure to avoid stepping on any of the clutter that was spread out throughout his room.

Once under the covers he felt himself slowly drift off into slumber. Before passing out one final thought crossed his mind. _I'll keep my promise no matter what Dad. I will become the best, and I will beat you._

* * *

*Errrrrrrrrrrrr! Errrrrrrrrrrrrrr! Errrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!* Ash groggily turned his head as he looked at his Voltorb replica alarm clock, it read 7:00 o'clock.

Ash jumped out of his bed in excitement. _Yes! Today is the day. _The raven haired boy hastily sprinted out of his room and made his way down the hall and into the bathroom.

He grabbed a towel off of the rack and hung it over the metal rod that held the shower curtain in place. The boy stripped himself of his pajamas and hopped in the shower.

After a quick 3 minute shower Ash grabbed the towel and proceeded to dry off. He then made his way back to his room where he grabbed a plastic shopping bag filled with the clothes that he had picked out with his mother the previous day.

The first items he grabbed were a pair of underwear and his brand new grayish colored jeans. He quickly put on both pieces of clothing. He then pulled out a fresh pair of white nike socks that he pulled up to about the middle of his calves.

The next couple of things he pulled out of the bag were a plain navy blue t-shirt and a black jacket. He pulled the navy blue shirt over his head and then put on the jacket.

Ash than grabbed the last three items out of the shopping bag. The first of the three was a pair of black suede nike shoes that were not quite pure running shoes but should be comfortable enough throughout his journey. The second item was an official trainer's belt, it was black in color and had 6 metal slots that allowed you to clip six pokeballs on it. The last of the three items was his favorite, a black snap back hat with a purple masterball logo just above the brim.

Once Ash finished up getting dressed he grabbed his official pokemon league backpack that his mother had filled with all of the essential things he would need until he reached Viridian. He then made a short trip to the bathroom one more time to make sure he looked alright.

Looking at himself in the mirror, Ash was pleased with his new clothing. After the short look over he made his way downstairs where his mom greeted him with a nice breakfast. After finishing his breakfast he got up from the table and walked on over to the front door before his mother called out to him.

"Honey, I'll meet you at professor Oak's in about a half an hour. Don't leave before I get there I want to see you before you leave."

"Ok, mom sounds good. I'm going to get going," Ash left his house with a large grin on his face. _I guess it's time to go get my first pokemon._

* * *

As Ash approached the front door to Professor Oak's lab several thoughts came rushing through his head. _I can't believe that it's finally happening. Behind this door will be my first pokemon. I just hope that the one I want is still here._

The raven haired trainer gave the front door a couple of hard knocks. After a few seconds of waiting the door opened and Ash was greeted by a handsome older looking man with a white lab coat on. "Ah Ash! It's great to see you again my boy, you're the first one to show."

Ash was surprised by that, he thought that at least Gary would have gotten here by now. "Hey professor! By the way where's Gary? I thought that he would for sure be the first one here."

Professor Oak let out a light chuckle. "Well Ash, it is only 7:30 and everyone was told to be here by 8:00. He's probably at my son's house rolling out of bed as we speak."

Ash scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. "Sorry, for getting here so early Professor I was just really excited."

"Now now Ash no need to apologize, being early is a great habit to have. Why don't you come on inside so we can get you started." Professor Oak waved the young boy to follow him as he led him down the hall and into a large fascinating room.

Ash looked at his surrounding's in awe. Inside of the room there was a bunch of complicated looking equipment pushed up against the walls. While in the middle of the room was a large circular machine that had three slots on top of it each holding a pokeball.

All three of the pokeball's had a red upper half, while the lower half was white. In the center of each pokeball was a large white button. This wasn't a surprise to Ash since all standard pokeballs had the same appearance.

What Ash found interesting was the fact that all three of the pokeball's had a different sticker located just above its button. One a small flame sticker, another had a small leaf sticker, and the last one had a small cascade sticker.

"Professor Oak, what's with the sticker's?" Ash asked even though he already had a good idea what the answer was going to be.

"Well my lad, they each represent which type of starter is in the pokeball. The one with the flame sticker is a Charmander, the one with the leaf sticker is a Bulbasaur, and the one with the cascade sticker is a Squirtle." Professor Oak answered.

"That's what I thought." Ash replied in an excited tone.

"Well now that I've explained which ball is which, do you know which one you want?" Asked the professor in a curious tone.

Ash smirked. "Of course, I've done a lot of research on all three of them and decided a couple months ago that I want to start out with a Charmander."

Professor Oak smiled before reaching for the pokeball with the flame insignia. He then pressed the button in the middle releasing a brilliant flash of bright red light.

Emerging from the light was a small orange lizard pokemon. It stood on two legs and was somewhere around 2 feet tall. Its eyes had a bluish hue and the tip of its tail was covered with a bright strong flame. The Charmander also had sharp claws on the tips of both its fingers and toes.

Charmander looked around the lab in a curious way. Once he caught glimpse of Ash he understood what was going on. After such a long wait he had finally been chosen by a trainer.

Ash bent over and studied Charmander with a grin on his face. He then carefully reached out and picked up the small young lizard pokemon. Once Ash was positive that Charmander didn't mind he proceeded to ask it a question. "Hey little guy, my name is Ash and I'd like to be your friend and trainer. Would you like that?"

Charmander didn't know what it was but there was something about Ash that made him warm inside. He felt safe in his arms and wanted nothing more than to be his friend. Charmander smiled and nodded back at Ash giving him the answer he was looking for.

Ash laughed and smiled back at Charmander. _He's so cute, and I just know I can make him strong I couldn't ask for a better starter._ "Well Charmander I'm glad you feel that way, were going to do great things together. Now I'm going to have to put you back in your pokeball for now but, I promise to let you out as soon as possible."

Charmander nodded his head in agreement. Ash took Charmander's pokeball from Professor Oak and pressed the button in the middle. A beam of red light shot from the pokeball and connected with charmander returning him to his red and white sphere.

Professor Oak had a large grin on his face "Well it looks like you made the right choice Ash, Charmander seems to really like you."

Ash had a similar look. "I think were perfect for each other."

"Ok, so now that you've got your first pokemon there are a few more things that I must give you." Professor Oak had Ash follow him over to a large cabinet. The professor than opened up one of the cabinet doors, pulling out some sort of device and five brand new pokeballs.

"Here are five pokeball's for you to use at the start of your journey. And this is the pokedex' it is pretty much an electronic- encyclopedia for pokemon in the Kanto region. It can be used to identify pokemon and give you information on them, as well as scan pokemon to find out what moves they know. It also serves as your trainer id so you will need to use it to register for the pokemon league."

Ash wasn't surprised because he had done a bunch of research on what the pokedex' did and knew they were handed out to every trainer when they started their journey. Never the less he thanked the professor. But, the next thing the professor did was a complete and utter shock.

"There is something else I want to give you." The professor opened up another cabinet and pulled out some sort of glass contraption with a large blue and white spotted egg inside of it.

Ash was astonished. "Is that what I think it is?!"

"That depends, Ash this is a pokemon egg. Now this is a privilege very few beginner trainer's get. I have no idea what is inside it so do not ask. I found it out in fields about a month ago. I planned on raising it here at the lab until I saw your test scores when you applied for your license. I figured that any student that got a perfect score should be able to handle it so I decided that I would give it to you as a gift."

Ash was still quite stunned but managed to conjure up a sentence. "But, why wouldn't you give it to Gary he's your grandson?"

Professor Oak smirked. "I honestly don't think Gary could handle an egg this is a big responsibility Ash and you are more suited for the task of raising it. You should not have to worry about it for too long since it should be hatching pretty soon. But, for now just make sure it stays in this incubator, it will keep it safe for the time being and when it is about to hatch the incubator will beep. "

Ash was overwhelmed with joy he had gotten his first pokemon Charmander and now a mysterious egg this day couldn't get any better for him. Ash took the incubator from the professor and carefully unzipped his back pack and placed it inside.

"Ok professor thank you for everything, I should probably get going now." Ash exclaimed.

"Of course Ash, give me a call whenever you want I would like to get updated on your progress every once in a while."

Ash gave the professor a thankful nod as he made his way outside the lab.

* * *

Ash started to walk down the long staircase that led back to the trail. He noticed that there was a large crowd of people approaching the lab as well as a red sports car. _Hmmm….I wonder what all these people are doing here, if I remember correctly there should only be three other kids getting pokemon today, one of them being Gary._

"Ash!" yelled Delia from somewhere amongst the obnoxious crowd of people. The raven haired trainer made his way over to the crowd trying to pinpoint where his mother's voice had come from.

Once he found her, he couldn't help but smile. "Mom, I got my first pokemon!"

Mrs. Ketchum reached out and gave her son a bone crushing hug. "Oh Ash, I'm so proud of you. You're finally going to fulfill your dream and become a pokemon trainer. " Delia than started to choke up a little bit and tears started to fall from her eyes. "B-b-but, I'm going to miss you so much, oh my little boy."

"M-om…can't…breath." Ash tried to force out as his mother kept squeezing harder and harder.

"Oh, I'm sorry honey it's just I can't believe you're going to be leaving."

Ash sighed. "Don't cry mom, I'll call you as soon as I get to viridian city it shouldn't be more than 3 or 4 days."

Delia brightened up a bit. "You promise?"

The beginner trainer gave his mother a concerned look. "I promise, and don't worry too much I'll be with Charmander so it's not like I'll be on my own."

Delia suddenly put on a look of curiosity. "So, you chose a Charmander do you mind if I see it before you get going?"

Ash reached for Charmander's pokeball and once in hand pressed its button. Charmander was soon released and immediately scurried on over to Ash and nudged his head against Ash's leg showing its affection.

"Hey buddy theirs someone I would like you to meet." Charmander turned around in curiosity and was somewhat intimidated by all of the people within the crowd.

Delia bent over much like Ash did when he first introduced himself to the fire lizard. "Well aren't you just adorable. My name is Delia I'm Ash's mother."

"Char..char" squealed charmander happy to introduce himself to the nice woman.

"Well Charmander, you couldn't have got a better person to be you're trainer. Take care of Ash for me."

Charmander nodded in agreement before making his way back to his trainer. "You ready to see the world charmander?" Ash asked his new friend.

"charmander…charr..char" Charmander growled in a confident tone much like his master's.

"That's what I like to hear. Now I'm going to put you back in your pokeball until we get outside of town." Charmander agreed as he was returned back into his red and white sphere.

Ash gave his mother a hug before saying farewell. Once the emotional moment was over he started to follow the trail that would take him to route 1. Ash took about 20 steps before he heard an annoying all too familiar voice._ Gary Oak….._

"Where you going Ash-boy, decided you were too scared to get a pokemon?"

Ash turned around with a smirk. He was a little bit surprised to find Gary in the back of the red sports car he had seen earlier. He was even more shocked by all of the cheer leaders that were accompanying him but decided that he might as well take a shot at Gary while he could. "Oh, hey Gary you've got it all wrong. I already have my first pokemon. I guess you're already trailing me."

Gary scoffed. "Pshhhh… Whatever Ash you may have beaten me out of bed, but there is no way you'll ever beat me in a pokemon battle."

Ash simply walked away while waving. "We'll see Gary, I'll catch you later."

* * *

Ash stood at the edge of pallet town. Beyond where he stood was route 1, he was about to begin his journey._ Well this is it one more step and I'll be out of pallet. This is a groundbreaking moment._

The raven haired trainer reached for Charmander's pokeball, wanting his new friend to experience this with him. Once in hand Ash released Charmander. "This is it charmander, route 1, one more step and we'll be on our way to becoming the best."

"Charrrrrr!" The little starter crossed his arms with confidence ready to take on any challenges that they would face.

"That's the attitude! But, before we get going I want to check what attacks you know." Ash retrieved his pokedex' from his back pocket before waving it over Charmander and pressing a button.

"Char?" Charmander grunted in curiosity wondering what his friend was up to.

"**Hello, Ash Ketchum I am Dexter and I will serve as a guide on your journey. Charmander the lizard pokemon, The flame at the tip of its tail makes a sound as it burns. You can only hear it in quiet places. This Charmander knows growl, scratch, and bite it is currently at level 5."**

Ash grinned "Not bad buddy, most charmander don't know bite at your level it must be something you inherited from your parents."

Charmander growled with satisfaction, happy that he had already pleased his trainer in a way.

"Well you ready to get going it's time to hit the road." Ash started to walk down route 1 with Charmander by his side.

* * *

"**Pidgey the tiny bird pokemon. Very docile If attacked it will often kick up sand to protect itself rather than fight back."**

"Well what do you say Charmander, how about a battle?" Ash asked his fire lizard.

Charmander looked up at his master with a look of determination in his eyes. "Charrr!"

"Alright than let's do it!" With Ash's command charmander walked toward the wild Pidgey in hopes of having its first battle.

"Charmander start things off with Growl!" Ash turned his hat backwards as he gave his first command as a pokemon trainer.

Charmander answered Ash with a loud noise that instantly caught the attention of the Pidgey.

Pidgey felt its body weaken as its attack power was instantly chopped down. It didn't even notice the two figures before it was being ambushed.

In an angry attempt at getting back at the Charmander that was attacking her, Pidgey used its talons to try and send a shot of sand in its direction.

"Dodge it! And use scratch." Charmander avoided the sand attack and was quick to strike the bird pokemon with its claws.

Pidgey was sent skidding across the ground as she wasn't prepared for her sand attack to miss.

"Now finish it off with bite!" Charmander rushed at the fallen Pidgey and used its momentum to deliver the finishing blow. The fire lizard met the Pidgey with its teeth instantly knocking it unconscious.

"Great job Charmander that was incredible!" Ash called out to his friend impressed by how well he did in his first battle. Charmander scampered back to Ash's side pleased with how he battled. Ash knew that it wasn't over for he still had to catch the tiny bird pokemon.

He reached for one of his empty pokeball's before tossing it at the unconscious Pidgey. The pokeball did not even shake once and immediately clicked since Pidgey was unconscious and unable to fight back.

Ash raised a fist in triumph as he celebrated with Charmander. "We did it Charmander we caught our first new friend!" "Charr! Char! Char!" The two danced around in circles before Ash finally realized that he should probably retrieve Pidgey's pokeball.

Once he had Pidgey's pokeball in hand he slung his back pack off of his shoulder and searched throughout it in attempt to find a revive. After about a minute of digging through his bag he found what he was looking for.

Ash than proceeded to release Pidgey from its pokeball and try and feed the unconscious bird the revive. It was barely responsive but managed to down the foreign medicine.

Pidgey immediately perked up as the revive spread throughout its system. The raven haired trainer was happy to see that the tiny bird pokemon would be ok.

Once Pidgey had caught a grip on the situation it immediately looked down at the dirt in sorrow knowing that it had been caught. "Keep your head up Pidgey, there's nothing to be upset about."

Pidgey looked up at the human with sad eyes wondering why it should believe him.

"You're in good hands. I promise to give you a good home and if you come along with me I will make sure that you get much stronger. So do you want to be friends?"

Pidgey's reaction was somewhat comical it seemed really touched by Ash's words and flew around in circles celebrating that it had made a new friend.

Ash called Pidgey over and properly introduced it to charmander. The two seemed to get along as they were discussing something. During their chatter Ash decided that now would probably be a good time to scan Pidgey to see what type of moves it knows and what gender it was.

"**This Pidgey is a female, it is level five, and knows the attacks tackle, and sand attack."**

Ash grinned before turning to Pidgey and Charmander. "Are you two ready to get going."

Both pokemon nodded before Ash decided to return Pidgey to its pokeball. He had gotten used to having Charmander outside of it and wanted nothing more than to let Pidgey fly around as well. But, understood that it would probably tire the recently caught Pidgey out since she had just been knocked unconscious by Charmander.

* * *

Ash and Charmander were now about a quarter of the way to Viridian city following route 1. It was starting to get dark so Ash decided that it would probably be smart to set up camp.

The two found a small clearing that seemed to be safe from any possible pokemon attacks. Ash set up his sleeping bag before heading out into the woods with Charmander to try and find some wood for a fire.

After about ten minutes of gathering fire wood Ash determined that he had enough to start a fire. The two moved some stones in the shape of a large circle so that they had something to contain the fire with. Once finished Ash turned to Charmander. "Charmander could you please use your tail to start the fire."

Charmander did as he was told and started the fire before returning to his trainer's side, curling up beside him.  
Ash than while sitting on top of his sleeping bag reached for Pidgey's pokeball and released her. "Hey girl, how are you feeling?"

Pidgey, squealed in excitement as she was let out of her pokeball by her new friend, she than landed on his right shoulder using it as a perch.

"I'm happy you're feeling better." Ash replied actually quite relieved.

The new pokemon trainer and his two brand new pokemon spent the next couple of hours getting to know each other a bit more.

When Ash saw on his pokedex' that it was 9 o'clock he put out the fire and laid down in his sleeping bag. Both his newly acquired pokemon did the same as they snuggled up along-side him.

As they stared up at the stars Ash slowly started to succumb to his sleepiness, but fought back his heavy eye lids for a few seconds in order to muster out a few last words to his pokemon before he fell asleep. "Good night guys, tomorrow we train."

Both pokemon couldn't help but be excited, tomorrow would be their first step towards getting stronger. Tomorrow would be another day spent with their new master who they were quickly learning to love.

**To Be Continued….**

* * *

**Ash's Pokemon:  
**

**Charmander: Level 5  
**

**Pidgey: Level 5  
**

**Mystery Egg  
**

* * *

**Author Notes: Please review, If you do I will reward by answering what I can in the next chapter. Also if you enjoy this story check out A Master Rises as well.  
**


	2. Viridian City:Training, T R, Friends!

**Author Notes: During the remainder of the story I will try my hardest to answer your questions without revealing any spoilers in the author notes section. **

**Response to reviews:**

**Alpha Darkness: He'll find a different pokemon instead of charmander that Damian abandoned. And this Ash isn't dense he'll know if a girl is coming on to him.**

**Uranium 325: Your question will answer itself:)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon, word.**

* * *

Ash groggily opened his eyes. As he looked up at the sky the aspiring pokemon master estimated that it was probably somewhere around 6 o'clock in the morning. Do to fact that it was still relatively dark and the sun was barely visible.

He carefully got up from his sleeping bag not wanting to wake up Charmander and Pidgey before he was prepared. After rubbing the sleepiness from his eyes he proceeded to take a deep breath. _I could get used to this. The air is so fresh, no pollution everything is just perfect._

The raven haired trainer, than reached over to his back pack and unzipped the middle pocket. Inside he found a paper bag that contained air tight zip lock bags filled with peanut butter sandwiches that his mother had packed for him. He took out one of the sandwiches and decided to scarf it down quickly. _Not your typical breakfast, but whatever it's food._

Once finished breaking his fast he reached back into his backpack and grabbed a medium sized bag that read pokechow. After breaking the bags seal he poured about a quarter of the small brown pellets out onto a couple of paper plates that his mother had thoughtfully placed inside of his bag making sure to split up the portions evenly. _The last thing I need is for Charmander, or Pidgey to think that I am playing favorites._

After Ash was finished setting up breakfast for his pokemon he walked back over to his sleeping bag and gave Charmander and Pidgey a gentle shake.

Charmander was the first to pry open his eyes and as he looked up at his trainer he couldn't help but smile.

"Hey Charmander it's time to wake up. We got a long day ahead of us." Ash told his tiny lizard pokemon. Charmander jumped up in excitement, ready to start the day off right.

Once Charmander was awake, Ash gave Pidgey one more shake, patiently waiting for his first caught pokemon to get up.

Much like Charmander, Pidgey woke up with a good attitude thrilled with the idea of waking up to her new master's face.

"Alright guys, you're breakfast is right over there." Ash spoke soothingly pointing to the two paper plates containing the pokechow. "Once you're finished eating we're going to start training."

Charmander and Pidgey nodded in unison, and hastily scampered to their breakfast.

Ash assumed that they must have liked it because they finished it in a mere couple of minutes. He also pondered over the idea that maybe they're eating fast because they just want to start training.

The raven haired trainer gave his two friends about a half an hour to digest their food, all the while explaining his plans for the day.

The schedule came out to something along the lines of this:

**[7:00-7:45 a.m. stretch along with speed and endurance training.]**

**[8:00-9:00 a.m. move tuturing]**

**[9:15- 10:30 a.m. strength and Defense]**

**[11:00 a.m. spar]**

**[11:30 a.m lunch]**

**[12:00 p.m travel]**

Both Charmander and Pidgey nodded and cheered in their own language ready for the day that Ash had planned out. "Charr!" "Giii!"

The raven haired trainer proceeded to explain that this would be their schedule Monday through Friday while the weekends would be used for rest and recuperation.

Charmander and Pidgey had no problems with this.

* * *

In Ash's opinion the morning had actually gone better than he thought it would. Speed and endurance training went well, he was actually quite surprised by both pokemon's effort during this portion of their training. Ash had Pidgey and Charmander do multiple wind sprints followed by running a couple of miles (In Pidgey's case flying). They became exhausted quickly, Ash offered for them to stop early but they weren't having any of it and pushed themselves throughout the entire 45 minutes.

After a fifteen minute break the aspiring pokemon master continued their training by trying to teach charmander ember, along with teaching pidgey gust. Ash's approach with Charmander was to have him do various breathing techniques. Once he seemed to understand the concept Ash had him focus all of his energy with in his lungs and picture himself shooting out a powerful ball of fire. At first it was a struggle but, Charmander caught on quickly and was now capable of using the attack on command.

The move tutoring lesson in Ash's opinion went well with Pidgey even though she would disagree. He had her continuously flap her wings in a powerful abrupt way hoping that she would eventually stumble into gust. After trying it numerous times she was eventually able to create a mediocre burst of wind. Although it wasn't quite gust, Ash figured that she was very close.

Once their move tutoring lessons were over Ash worked with them on their strength and defense. During the strength portion Ash used the lightest setting on the pokemon weights that he had bought about a month ago. He then had both Pidgey and Charmander continuously use the different attacks that they knew on a couple of trees while wearing the weights.

After their strength training, Ash started to work on their defense. He wasn't quite sure if his idea for this part would work but he quickly found that it was perfect. For Charmander's training Ash had Pidgey continuously use her mediocre gust on Charmander every once in a while mixing it up with tackle. He ordered Charmander to either dodge or block. The lizard pokemon caught on quickly and did an excellent job of avoiding and stopping the attacks.

When it came down to Pidgey's defense training Ash focused purely on dodging. During the speed training Ash had observed that Pidgey was quite the little speedster and he figured for the first day he would have her work on increasing that speed even more. So, while Pidgey was airborne he had Charmander unleash multiple ember attacks at her, while simultaneously ordering Pidgey to dodge.

Although Pidgey was hit by 1 or 2 she managed to dodge nearly every single one of them, getting quicker and quicker as they went.

Right before they started to spar, Ash reached into his bag and opened up a package that contained 15 potions and grabbed two of them before applying them to both Charmander and Pidgey. He wanted to make sure that both pokemon were at full health before they battled.

The battle was actually very competitive which surprised Ash a great deal. He was expecting Charmander to overpower Pidgey. But, both did very well. Charmander landed an ember attack as well as a few tackles. But, Pidgey didn't back down in the least bit and actually managed to master gust during the middle of the battle and knock Charmander down a few times.

Ash made sure to stop the battle before either pokemon was knocked unconscious, and after used another two potions in order to get them back to full health.

* * *

Ash, pidgey and Charmander sat in the same clearing they had set up camp in. The raven haired trainer was currently stuffing his face with another peanut-butter sandwich while Charmander and Pidgey were scarfing down their pokechow.

After the long morning of training the three couldn't help but enjoy the food. Once finished with his sandwich the raven haired trainer pulled out his pokedex in order to check Pidgey and Charmander's progress.

**Charmander: Level 8**

**Pidgey: Level 8**

He couldn't help but grin at the statistics. _Wow! I know low level pokemon are supposed to level up quickly. But, were already way ahead of schedule. In one training session they managed to level up 3. I wasn't expecting this for at least a couple more days._

Ash than picked his head up from his pokedex' to find Charmander and Pidgey right in front of them with a look of satisfaction in their eyes.

"I'm proud of you guys you worked hard. I couldn't be happier with you." Both pokemon squealed at the praise. "Charr!" "Gii!"

"Well now that were done training for the day, I think it's time for us to get going." Ash packed up camp before reaching for Pidgey and Charmander's pokeball.

He then returned them before speaking to their red and white spheres. "You guys deserve a nice rest."

* * *

The next couple of days seemed to blend together for Ash, Charmander, and Pidgey. The routine was the same wake up, eat, train, eat, travel, eat, and sleep. But, although the days were long and rather tiring, the results were worth it.

Charmander and Pidgey were growing stronger every day. The two were right around even in every category and throughout their training Charmander managed to learn the move smokescreen, while Pidgey learned quick attack.

The last time Ash checked his pokedex' which was just after their last training session both Pidgey and Charmander had both managed to reach level 13. Although they were managing to level up quickly the raven haired trainer understood that things were probably going to slow down relatively soon.

With this fact weighing heavily on him Ash, decided that he needed to get to Viridian City rather quickly. They were running out of supplies, and he wanted to find other pokemon trainers to battle. Ash ran into other people now and then but, none of them were trainers. Most of them were usually merchants transporting goods from Viridian to Pallet.

Charmander and Pidgey needed to battle pokemon other than each other. After the second day Ash decided to try and find some wild pokemon to possibly challenge, but that turned out to be a giant failure. It was easy to find a few Ratatta along with some more Pidgey but they were all way too weak to pose as any sort of a challenge.

So Ash decided to take a break from training and dedicate the fourth day of his journey to reaching Viridian City.

This decision proved to be a good one as he managed to reach the outskirts of Viridian City by 3:00 o'clock p.m.

* * *

"Attention Citizens of Viridian City! Attention Citizens of Viridian City! We have a force of possible pokemon thieves! Be on the look-out for suspicious looking strangers!" Ash heard the announcement the moment he stepped foot within the City limits.

_Hmmm.. that can't be good, oh well I'm sure that the police will figure everything out. _The moment Ash finished his thought he was cut off by a tall woman in a blue police uniform. She had long natural blue hair and wore a blue cap with a golden star just above the brim.

The female officer gave Ash a stern look. "Excuse me boy, before you can pass I need to see some identification."

Ash shrugged while handing her his pokedex', he was a little uncomfortable with the look she gave him but, figured that she was just doing her job. "So, are you checking identification because of these so called thieves?" Ash asked in a pleasant tone.

The officer had her eyes glued to Ash's pokedex' but answered him nonetheless. "Yes, there has been a spotting of a couple of members from the notorious criminal syndicate Team Rocket. It's pretty obvious you're not a member but we were given orders to check the i.d. of everyone that enters the city and I've got to say it has been quite the nuisance."

Ash clenched his fist at the name of Team Rocket. He had heard several stories about how they treated pokemon, and stole from trainers. Everything Team Rocket stood for got Ash's blood boiling.

With the angry thoughts of Team Rocket coursing through his brain Ash was surprised to hear the police officers voice. "Well it looks like you can go on through, Ash Ketchum from Pallet town. You are actually the fourth trainer that I have seen from Pallet since yesterday. A couple of them are staying at the Pokemon center if you want I could give you a ride over there."

Ash wasn't shocked that he was the last one to reach Viridian. He was actually rather happy. _I doubt any of them trained as hard as me, but it is kind of weird that I never ran into any of them._ "That would be great!" Ash exclaimed happy to get a break from walking and thrilled at the idea of going to a pokemon center for the very first time.

"Ok, Ash let's get going then by the way the names Jenny." Ash jotted down a mental note trying his hardest to keep her name in mind.

Officer Jenny than proceeded to have Ash follow her to a motorcycle, with a passenger car connected to its right side. Once inside the passenger car Ash patiently waited for Officer Jenny to start the bike. Little did he know that he would be wishing later that he would have just walked.

* * *

"A wanted poster how flattering." A mysterious woman with long unnatural magenta colored hair growled.

"Flattering this picture makes me look terrible." A just as mysterious man with unnatural blue hair answered her.

Both of them wore matching white jumpsuits with a large red R on the shirt. They also had on long black gloves and boots. The only difference in their outfits was that the magenta haired woman had the mid rift cut out of her shirt.

"At least you guys have wanted posters." Spoke a short figure sheepishly, it wasn't exactly human.

The woman shot the figure a stern look. "Meowth, when were done here there will be wanted posters of you on every single wall throughout the entire city."

The talking pokemon looked down at Viridian City from the confines of a custom hot air balloon sporting his face. He then turned to his two colleagues "Let's steal some pokemon."

* * *

Ash's head was spinning as the motorcycle skidded up to the entrance of the pokemon center. If he could do it over he definitely would have passed on Officer Jenny's offer. The woman drove like a maniac.

As he stepped out of the motorcycle passenger car he felt as if he was going to throw up. All sick feelings went away though as soon as he took a look at the building in front of him. _It's huge!_

The Viridian city pokemon center was a massive dome shaped building built to look like the top half of a pokeball.

Ash thanked Officer Jenny for the ride even though it was a terrible experience and he didn't think she deserved it. The two exchanged goodbyes as he watched her speed off in the direction that they came from.

With Officer Jenny out of the picture, the trainer from Pallet walked through the large automatic double sided door that was the entrance to the pokemon center.

Once inside Ash took a minute to take in his surroundings. The lobby for the most part was empty other than a few kids around the same age as him relaxing on a couple of comfortable looking couches in the far right corner. Ash ignored them and made his way to the front desk.

He found it odd that there was nobody attending it until he caught a glimpse of a small service bell laid out on the counter. The raven haired boy proceeded to ring the bell, after waiting for a couple of minutes the door behind the counter swung open.

Walking out from behind the door was a woman with long pink hair, she was also dressed in a nurse's outfit. It was pretty obvious to Ash that the woman was pretty, but what caught his attention were the two pokemon that followed her out into the lobby. _Just like the book said, all pokemon centers in the Kanto region use Chansey to help out their employees._

Before Ash started his journey he had looked up all of the services that the multiple Pokemon Center's spread out throughout the Kanto region had to offer. He found it very interesting that every single pokemon center used 1 or 2 Chansey.

"Hello sweetheart my name is nurse joy, what can I do for you?" asked the Pink haired woman in a soothing tone.

"Nice to meet you nurse Joy my names Ash Ketchum, I was wondering if you could take a look at my pokemon, and if I could get a room for the night." Ash replied.

Nurse Joy reached for a few things under the counter, she pulled out a metal tray with 6 slots that Ash assumed were for his pokeball's. She also had a set of keys in hand. "Of course, now place your pokeball's on the tray if your pokemon aren't in any serious danger I should have them back to you in about 15 minutes. As for your second request this key will open up your room, just take the stairs and follow the numbered signs. I have placed you in room 20F."

Ash handed over Charmander and Pidgey's pokeball's before taking the key from Nurse Joy. After thanking her Ash made his way up the stair case in search of his room, the room was relatively easy to find. Inside was a bed and a night stand along with another door that led into the bathroom.

The raven haired trainer contemplated taking a shower but decided that he would wait until after he had called his mother and retrieved his pokemon.

Ash left his backpack in the room and locked the door. He returned to the lobby and noticed that the two kids on the couches were looking at him. He ignored them for a second time and made his way over to a video phone on the left hand side of the room.

The aspiring pokemon master dialed the number to his house and waited for his mother to pick up. The screen showed the words _Voice Only._

"Hello Ketchum residence."

Ash had a warm feeling manifest inside of him as he heard the gentle voice of his mother for the first time in 4 days. "Hello.. mom?"

The video feed immediately turned on to reveal his overjoyed mother in her bathrobe. "Oh hi honey is everything ok I've missed you so much!"

Ash scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Uhh everything's great I'm in Viridian City."

Delia squealed over the phone. "You're in Viridian! How was the trip tell me everything about it?"

Ash spent the next 10 minutes summarizing the events of his trip to Viridian.

"So you caught a Pidgey, and have been training her along with Charmander on the way to the city it sounds to me like you've been having a wonderful time." Delia stated in a proud motherly way.

The raven haired trainer couldn't help but smile "Yup! it has been a lot fun. Charmander and Pidgey are great to have around."

"Well Ash, it's nice to hear from you don't forget to call your mother when you get to Pewter. I have to get to the restaurant, so I'll talk to you soon. Love you sweetheart! And please remember to do your laundry and change your underwear mister."

The raven haired boy blushed in embarrassment before saying goodbye to his mother. He was about to walk away from the video phone when it started to ring. _What the hell? Who could that be, is it for me._

Ash said the hell with it and picked the phone up. He was surprised to find that Professor Oak was on the screen. "Ash my boy, how's your journey been?"

"Umm.. hey professor things have been great, but if you don't mind me asking how did you know that I would be the one picking up the phone?" Ash asked with curiosity.

"A professor never reveals his secrets." Oak spoke slyly. "Any way the reason I'm calling you is because I have somewhat of a problem I was hoping you could solve."

_The old man can be creepy when he wants to. _Ash pushed this thought aside as he answered the professor. "How can I help?"

"The task really isn't all that complicated, I just have this pokemon at the lab that is causing me all kinds of trouble. It doesn't like staying in its pokeball and anytime I try and get close to it I get electrocuted. I already asked Gary if he was willing to take it but, he told me that he didn't want to put up with it. So I figured I'd ask you?"

Ash thought it over for a second._ It may end up being a burden, but if I want to become a master I'm going to have learn how to deal with troublesome pokemon._

"Sure professor I'll take it." Ash answered confidently.

"Thanks Ash, I really appreciate it. I'll have it transferred over to you once I figure out how to get it inside of its pokeball. There should be a pokemon transfer machine over by Nurse Joy's desk so just stand by and wait for it." Oak said sounding relieved.

The videophone screen went blank before Ash could say goodbye. _He really seems to be in a hurry to get rid of that pokemon. Wait a second! I forgot to ask him what it was._

* * *

Once Nurse Joy was finished treating Charmander and Pidgey Ash retrieved both of them from her care. He then waited by the pokemon transfer machine for what seemed like an hour before the mysterious troublemaker was teleported to Viridian city.

The pokeball that was sent over had a lightning bolt sticker placed just above its button much like Charmander's. The moment Ash picked it up the pokeball opened on its own, emerging from the brilliant flash of red light was a smirking Pikachu. "Pika?"

_Its adorable how could this little guy cause any trouble. _The raven haired trainer almost found out the hard way as Pikachu released a thunderbolt in the direction of his new master.

Ash's instincts took over as he dove and rolled to the right of the blast avoiding a great deal of pain.

"Hey what's going on over there!" Nurse joy screamed as Pikachu fried some equipment that was lined up against the wall.

Pikachu chuckled mischievously actually quite thrilled by his handiwork.

"Sorry Nurse Joy! Professor Oak sent this Pikachu over to me with the transfer machine. It let itself out of its pokeball and now it's trying to kill me!" Ash screamed as he continued to dodge thunderbolts from the tiny mouse pokemon.

Nurse Joy as well as the kids that were hanging out on the sofa were about to get up and help when something unexpected happened.

They heard glasss shattering from the roof, and saw that two pokeball's were falling into the middle of the lobby. Appearing from the two red and white spheres were a purple snake pokemon and a round grey floating pokemon with an X and an O on its chest. "Ekans!" "Koffing!"

The round grey pokemon which Ash observed was a Koffing used smokescreen. The entire lobby was now engulfed in smoke and it was nearly impossible to see.

_Crap, what the hell is going on I can't see anything! _Ash was coughing up smoke, while trying to breathe.

"Who's responsible for this!" Nurse Joy bellowed trying to get a grip on the situation.

"Prepare for Trouble!"

"Make it double!"

"To protect the world from devastation!"

"To unite all peoples within our nation!"

"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"

"To extend our reach to the stars above!"

"Jessie!"

"James!"

"Team Rocket blast off at the speed of light!"

"Surrender now or prepare to fight!"

"Meowth that's right!"

Ash only registered two words from the unfamiliar voices he heard from inside the lobby. _Team Rocket!_

Understanding that the situation was serious Ash quickly tried to figure out a way to disperse the smoke. He came up with a plan in a matter of seconds.

The raven haired trainer unclipped Pidgey's pokeball and tossed it out into the smoke. "Pidgey, I need your help!"

Appearing from its red and white sphere Pidgey was immediately taken back by her surroundings. She wasn't quite sure what was going on until she heard her master's voice.

"Pidgey get rid of this smokescreen with gust!"

The tiny bird pokemon immediately started to flap her wings powerfully and abruptly, dispersing all of the smoke within the pokemon center by using gust.

Once the smoke was cleared Ash could see that the culprits were both wearing white jumpsuits with the letter R on the front. One of them was a woman with long ugly magenta hair. The other was a feminine looking man with unnatural blue hair that hung to about his shoulders. Ash, remembered hearing a third voice as well but figured his mind must have been playing tricks him because the third member of their party was a Meowth.

Ash was mistaken as soon as the Meowth opened up its mouth to speak. "Hand over all of the pokemon in the pokemon center Nurse Joy and nobody will get hurt!"

Everyone in the room was wide eyed. _Did we just get threatened by a talking cat. _Ash thought to himself as he tried to grasp his mind around the situation.

Ash quickly brought himself back to reality. "Don't listen to them nurse joy! I'll take care of these clowns. Go and make sure that all of the pokemon are safe!"

Nurse Joy didn't feel comfortable leaving a child to take care of the three criminals but there was something about his tone of voice that made her believe that he could do it. "A-Alright!"

The two other kid's in the room a boy and a girl followed Nurse Joy out of the lobby not wanting to get involved with a criminal organization like Team Rocket.

Boy:_ Is that kid crazy, he should grab his pokemon and get out of here!_

Girl: _I hope he'll be alright, I just got my pokemon from Professor Oak, otherwise I would help him out. Bulbasaur is far too weak still to stand up to the likes of Team Rocket._

Pikachu sat by idly entranced by the human that he was trying to electrocute only a few minutes ago. His words were sincere and Pikachu had an odd idea that he was special. He knew that this kid was supposed to be his new trainer. When he first laid eyes on him he didn't want to accept that he would be some human's tool. But, there was something about what he had just said and how he said it that made Pikachu believe that maybe just maybe their meeting was destiny.

"What exactly do you think you can do little boy!" yelled the woman who called herself Jesse.

Ash was digging his fingernails into his palms as he trembled in anger. "Who the hell do you think you are waltzing into here trying to take pokemon that don't belong to you!"

The man called James nearly let out a chuckle. "You better watch your tone little man. You are dealing with branch 213 of team Rocket."

"Yeah and a little twerp like you can't stop us! So just run along and put your pokeball's in the bag before you get hurt." The talking Meowth said in a sly tone while holding out a large brown cloth sack.

"If you think I'll just hand my pokemon over without a fight your dumber than you look!" Ash reached for Charmander's pokeball and tossed it in the direction of the three Rocket grunts.

Charmander emerged from a flash of bright light, sensing his master's rage he immediately knew that the situation called for a battle. Pidgey soon flew to Charmander's side ready for combat.

"If a battle is what you want then a battle is what you'll get. Ekans use poison sting on the brats Charmander!" Jesse commanded in a devious tone.

James wasn't far behind "Koffing smog on that pathetic bird!"

Ash quickly thought up a counter strategy. "Both of you dodge!"

Charmander and Pidgey put their training to the test as they easily darted out of the way of the weaker Ekans and Koffings attacks.

"Good! Now Charmander retaliate with Ember on Ekans!, Pidgey give that Koffing a taste of your Gust!" Charmander shot out a powerful burst of fire that connected with Ekan's knocking it down but not out. Pidgey flapped its wings multiple times releasing a powerful gust of wind that sent Koffing flying into the wall dealing quite a bit of damage.

"Ekan's get up!" Jesse roared trying to frighten Ekan's back into battle.

James used the same strategy with Koffing. Both pokemon struggled to get up as they tried to fulfill their master's wishes.

"Don't give them room to breathe! Charmander get in close and use bite on Ekan's. Pidgey use quick attack on Koffing!" Ash bellowed.

Charmander rushed towards Ekans. Before the snake could muster up the energy to get up from the ground Charmander drove his teeth into the Ekans reptilian skin instantly knocking it unconscious.

Pidgey showed off the speed she had gained throughout her training. In a matter of seconds she had rammed her body into Koffing causing the poison type to cry out in pain. Koffing rolled over on the ground with swirls in its eyes letting Ash know that it could no longer battle.

Jesse and James recalled their defeated pokemon with a scowl on their face. "Who needs pokemon for a job that we can do by ourselves!" Jesse screamed as she rushed Ash with a dangerous look in her eyes. James and Meowth quickly followed in attempt to give their fellow colleague support.

_Are all members of Team Rocket this stupid._ Ash was about to order Charmander and Pidgey to attack when a monstrous blast of electricity struck them down and sent them soaring through the hole in the roof from which they came. Ash could have sworn he heard them mutter something about blasting off.

The aspiring pokemon master felt a sudden shift in weight on his shoulder. When he turned his head to see what was causing it he found Pikachu looking him directly in the eyes with a smile. "Hey, Pikachu thanks for taking care of those idiots for me."

"Pika!" squealed Pikachu happily.

Ash wasn't quite sure what caused the electric mouse to have a change of heart, but decided to leave it alone for the time being. He was just happy that he had gained another friend. "So you decided to come around, welcome to the team buddy!"

Ash, Pikachu, Charmander, and Pidgey took a few minutes to celebrate their victory over the not so intimidating branch 213 of Team Rocket. Once they were done Ash returned Charmander and Pidgey back to their pokeball's. The raven haired trainer remembered what Professor Oak said over the phone and decided that if Pikachu didn't like being in his pokeball he wouldn't force it on him. Instead he let Pikachu hang around on his shoulder.

The raven haired trainer decided that it would probably be a good idea for him to check out Pikachu with his pokedex'.

**Pikachu- The Mouse Pokemon-When several Pikachu gather, their electricity could build and cause lightning storms.**

**This Pikachu is male it is level 18 and knows Growl, Thundershock, Tail Whip, Thunderwave, Quick Attack, Electro ball, and Thunder bolt.**

"Wow, Pikachu you're a strong little guy aren't you."

Pikachu scratched the back of his head sheepishly. A little bit embarrassed by his new friends praise.

* * *

Ash now found himself out front of the pokemon center accompanied by Nurse Joy, and both of the kids from the lobby. The boy was around the same height as Ash. He had short blonde hair, aqua blue eyes, and wore a plain red t-shirt with blue jeans. The girl was a little bit shorter than Both Ash and the boy. She had long brown hair underneath a white bucket hat. She wore a light blue sleeveless shirt as well as a short red skirt.

"Thanks for taking care of those Team Rocket members Ash. I'm not sure what would have happened if it weren't for you."

Ash tried to hide his blush getting thanked by a women as pretty as Nurse Joy was a little overwhelming for him. "Uhh…it was no big deal, honestly."

"It's a huge deal! you've been a trainer for 4 days and your already taking out members of the famous Team Rocket if I sent my Nidoran out there the poor little guy would have been crushed!" shouted the boy who had just introduced himself as Alex.

Alex's friend Leaf decided to thrust herself into the conversation. "Yeah Ash, Team Rocket is a terrible organization filled with numerous powerful trainers. It's pretty impressive that you managed to beat them."

Ash sighed. "Well if Team Rocket is as horrible as everyone says they are than those guys must have been their worst agents because they were weak."

Nurse Joy decided that now would be a good time to interrupt their conversation. "Well children, after the damage that has been done to the Pokemon center I'm afraid that you won't be able to stay here for the night. I've already given Officer Jenny a call and she said that it would be okay for you guys to camp out in front of the police station if you want."

* * *

The three trainers decided to take Officer Jenny up on her offer and set up camp in front of the station. After the three started a fire to stay warm. Ash quickly learned that Alex and Leaf were both from the north side of Pallet town and that they decided to travel together. Just like Ash they were going to travel the Kanto region in attempt to collect 8 gym badges so that they could compete in the Indigo league which would take place in 9 months.

_Crap, I completely forgot to register for the Indigo league at the pokemon center. I'm going to have to take care of that tomorrow. _Ash thought to himself as he listened to Leaf and Alex talk about their trip to Viridian.

"So Ash, how many pokemon have you caught so far?" Leaf asked the aspiring pokemon master.

"I have three my starter was Charmander, I caught a Pidgey on my way to Viridian, and I just got Pikachu today. What about you guys?"

Alex was the first to answer. "I have two. I was the last one to show up to pick up my pokemon so Professor Oak gave me a Nidoran since all of the normal starters were already taken. I'm happy it worked out that way though because Nidoran and I get along great. As for my second pokemon I caught a Spearow on my way over here unfortunately the darn bird won't listen to a single thing I say."

Ash chuckled. "Give it some time. I'm sure Spearow will warm up to you eventually."

"Yeah I hope so." Alex sighed while moving a little bit closer to the fire.

Ash raised an eye brow. "What about you Leaf what pokemon do you have?"

Leaf perked up a bit it was obvious to Ash that she couldn't wait to talk about her pokemon. "Well since you asked I have a Bulbasaur and a Ratatta. I couldn't be more happy with them. In just four days they've already become like family to me."

The three talked for hours about topics such as pokemon that they hoped to catch during their travels along with their dreams and ambitions. Ash told them about his dream to become a pokemon master, and they told him about their dreams as well. Alex wanted to become a member of the Kanto elite four and Leaf had her own dream of one day becoming the very first gym leader in Pallet.

The conversation came to a climax when Leaf proposed a very interesting idea. "Ash, you should travel with Alex and I it would be so much fun."

"Yeah dude we'd love to have you, plus it would be nice to have another guy around Leaf can get annoying sometimes." Alex regretted his comment about Leaf as he rubbed the soar spot on the back of his head, where she had struck him.

Ash laughed at Alex's bad luck as he thought it over. _It would be nice to travel with friends. And Leaf and Alex seem like some pretty cool people so it would probably be a lot of fun._

Ash turned to Pikachu who hadn't left his shoulder since they left the pokemon center. "Well what do you say Pikachu, do you want to travel with these guys."

"Chaaa!" Pikachu nodded his head in agreement.

"Well I guess that settles it."

All three trainers smiled as they thought about the adventures that they would have in the near future. They continued to talk amongst themselves, mostly about what they still had to take care of in Viridian city before they took off for Pewter tomorrow.

The conversation was interrupted when Alex noticed that there was a strange beeping noise coming from Ash's backpack. "Ash what's that noise did you're alarm clock go off on accident or something?"

Ash was about to explode with happiness. _That's coming from the incubator! The egg must be hatching!_

Ash frantically reached over to his backpack and unzipped the largest pocket. He then proceeded to remove the incubator containing the egg from the bag.

Both leaf and Alex gasped when they saw what the noise was coming from.

"Is that a pokemon egg!" shrieked Leaf in excitement.

"What else could it be idiot!" yelled Alex in the same tone as Leaf.

"Yeah and it's about to hatch so will you guys be quiet!" Ash begged his new friends.

Ash removed the egg from the incubator very carefully trying his hardest not to disrupt the hatching process. Once he got it out he placed it on the grass directly in front of him.

The three recently decided travel companions watched in silence as the egg started to rock back and fourth on the ground.

It then started to develop several small cracks all around it as whatever was inside was beginning to try and break free.

The cracks continued to get larger and larger, and the three trainer's hearts began to beat faster and faster in anticipation. Even Pikachu was getting excited for he had never witnessed a hatching before.

_And what's it going to be? _Thought Ash as his the pokemon inside the egg was a mere seconds away from revealing itself. _3…..2…..1._

The first thing Ash saw was its head. It was blue and had two wing like appendages connected to both sides of its head as well as a tiny white dot on its forehead. The new born had a large white circular snout that covered the majority of its face and as it continued to emerge from the egg Ash saw that it had no limbs and slithered out like a snake. In fact it was a large snake but something about it was majestic.

Both Alex and Leaf were stunned into complete silence.

The newborn slithered to Ash wanting him to pick her up. Ash immediately did so as he looked down at his brand new pokemon in awe. The blue and white snake like pokemon looked back at Ash with big loving eyes obviously taking Ash for her father. Ash couldn't believe what he was holding in his arms. "I-It-s….a….Dratini."

While holding Dratini Ash reached into his pocket and pulled out his pokedex. He wanted to look up everything there was on the creature.

Dratini cocked her head to the side in curiosity as Dexter spoke.

"**Dratini-The Dragon Pokemon-Long considered a mythical pokemon until recently when a small colony was found living underwater. It is called the mirage pokemon because so few have seen it."**

**This Dratini is female and is level 1 it knows the attacks leer, wrap, and haze.**

Once Dexter finished up Ash unclipped a pokeball from his belt since he still had to capture her.

"Dratini, do you want to come with me on an adventure?" Ash asked the young dragon-type.

Dratini nuzzled her head against Ash's arm before pressing the button on the empty pokeball with her snout. The pokeball immediately clicked since Dratini went inside willingly.

Ash drifted off in his own little world as he thought about what had just happened.

He was brought back to reality at the sound of Alex's voice. "Dude. I am sooooo jelous…"

**To be continued….**

* * *

**Ash's Pokemon:**

**Charmander male level 13**

**Pidgey female level 13**

**Pikachu male level 18**

**Dratini female level 1**

**Leaf's Pokemon:**

**Bulbasaur female level 7**

**Ratatta male level 6**

**Alex's Pokemon**

**Nidoran male level 8**

**Spearow male level 5**

**Author Notes: Please review, it really does make a difference. I'll try to get the next chapter out before Sunday.**


	3. Viridian Forest:Dratini's Pride, Samuri!

**Author notes: This chapter is a little bit shorter, but I'll make up for it with the next one.**

**Response to Reviews:**

**Dragonwolf 12: Havn't decided if I'm going to incorporate aura yet. I guess we'll find out when we get there. As for Brock and Misty they will be the gym leaders but I don't plan on having them travel with Ash.**

**ZackTaylor: This fic will go to all regions.**

**Dragonheart1234: Ash may not get all of the pokemon that he caught in Kanto I'm still deciding. But, I can promise that he will catch more.**

**Daniboy95: I will try and at least update weekly, I have another story right now that I'm working on as well.**

**Allie cat: **

**2) You guys can definitely suggest pokemon, but I can't promise that I will pick them.**

**3) Yes **

**Tylerbamafan34: I may have Ash catch a Raltz when he gets to Hoenn as for now I'm sticking to Kanto native pokemon, maybe some pre-evolutions from the Jhoto pokedex'.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon, word.**

* * *

"Why can't they just make an exception?" asked Alex in a curious tone.

Ash sighed in annoyance, he had already answered this question twice back at the Pokemon center while he was registering for the league. "I don't know man, it's just how the gym challenge works. You can't challenge the Viridian City gym until you have at least seven other badges."

Alex scratched the back of his head. "I just don't understand why. I mean you can challenge every other gym anytime you want. What makes this one so special?"

The raven haired trainer opened his mouth up to speak, but was cut off by Leaf. "Maybe, the gym leader is super strong and doesn't feel like battling beginners like us."

Alex thought about what Leaf said before answering. "I guess that makes sense, I just think it's really inconvenient that we are going to have to travel all the way back here to get our 8th badge."

_Idiot… We're going to have to travel back through Viridian anyway, We got to go back to Pallet Town before the Indigo conference. _Ash sighed once more before trying to change the subject. "Well anyway, we can't get the badge now so there is no need to talk about this any longer. We should probably start heading to Pewter."

The three travel companions finished up restocking their supplies and exited the Virdian city poke'mart. Ash purchased 6 standard pokeballs, a map of Kanto, 2 bags of pokechow, another set of pokemon weights for Pikachu (He wasn't comfortable with training Dratini with weights for obvious reasons), and a variety med kit that had multiple potions and revives. He didn't pay attention to what Alex and Leaf bought.

"So which way is it to the Viridian forest?" Leaf asked Ash.

Ash was already on it as he and Pikachu were currently studying the brand new map that he had just bought. He muttered a few things to the electric mouse before explaining the situation to his two new friends. "Ok, so we just need to head north and there should be a trail that will lead us into the forest. It shouldn't take any longer than an hour to reach it."

"Alright sweet, let's not waste any more time I want to get to Pewter as fast as possible so I can battle the gym leader!" Alex exclaimed with a goofy grin as he sprinted off south in the direction of Pallet.

Leaf and Ash both face palmed. Pikachu almost fell off of Ash's shoulder in hysterics. "Is he always this big of an idiot?" Ash asked Leaf incredulously.

Leaf simply sighed while shaking her head. "I'm afraid so."

"Well, should we go get him."

Leaf smirked. "No just stay put, he'll figure it out in 3…..2…..1."

* * *

Ash couldn't help but laugh as he watched Alex turn around in the distance and start trotting back in their direction. _Wow, she knows him well._

It took the trio a little under an hour to reach the famous Viridian forest. The weather was perfect, the pidgey were singing, and the children were loving every single second of it.

They were walking on the trail towards Pewter city when Alex and Leaf started up a conversation about one of their friends from back home, ignoring them Ash slowly drifted off into a state of deep thought. _Hmmm… so I've missed 2 mornings of training. If I want to stay on track I'm going to have to find a place for my pokemon to get a light work-out in before the day i-_

Ash's thought was interrupted by Alex's loud voice. "Hey guys look it's a Caterpie!"

The raven haired trainer pulled out Dexter to learn more about the small green caterpillar looking creature.

**Caterpie-The Worm Pokemon- Caterpie's short feet are tipped with suction pads that enable it to tirelessly climb slopes and walls.**

Leaf had a look on her face that Ash had a tough time deciphering, but once she opened her mouth to speak it became obvious how she felt about bugs. "Oh my! It's so cute!" The brunette yelped in a giddy tone. "I have to have it!"

Ash was quite surprised, most girls that he knew from back in Pallet town thought bug pokemon were gross. The raven haired trainer was actually considering capturing the little guy himself, before Leaf had spoken up. He now figured that it would be wrong to try and catch the Caterpie, it was pretty clear that Leaf wanted it more than he did.

Alex seemed to understand as well, as he gently shoved Leaf towards the worm pokemon. "Well don't just stand there moron go and catch it."

Leaf gave Alex a nasty glare before reaching for one of her Pokeball's. The young female trainer summoned her Rattata and instantly gave it a command. "Rattata use quick attack!"

The purple and white rat pokemon shrouded itself in a field of white energy as it took off in a blur across the ground.

The foot tall green worm never even had a chance. Rattata pelted Caterpie in the side with its head instantly putting swirls in the poor things eyes. Ash simply scratched the back of his head as he witnessed. _Jeez…That caterpie was pretty weak she probably could have just thrown a pokeball at it without battling. But, for some reason I feel like that Caterpie is going to be a good addition to her team. I'm not sure why though._

Leaf tossed an empty pokeball at the unconscious Caterpie. It sucked him up in a ray of red energy and rolled once before clicking signifying that it was a clean capture.

Leaf jumped up and down in joy as she celebrated her catch. "I did it, I caught Caterpie!"

Alex and Ash both congratulated Leaf before the three continued on their way through the forest.

* * *

"I'm sorry Dratini, but we really shouldn't rush this. You just hatched 2 days ago." Ash gently stroked his new Dratini's long reptilian body as he tried to make her feel better.

"Tini..tini!" The majestic young pokemon pleaded.

Ash sweat dropped as he sheepishly scratched the back of his head. "You're not going to take no for an answer are you?"

Dratini shook her head in defiance. She wanted desperately to train with the others, and although she was barely 2 days old she already felt the need to grow stronger.

"Alright fine, I'll let you do some light training. No weights and no battling, today we will just practice the moves that you already know." Ash sighed as he dealt with his stubborn little hatchling.

Dratini was a little bit disappointed that she wouldn't get to train like the others, but still brightened up with the idea that she would at least get to do some things.

It was yesterday that the dragon-type decided that she wanted to become a strong battler. Ash, Leaf, and Alex had stopped traveling for the day and it was then that the aspiring pokemon master decided that he would go off on his own for a couple of hours to train his pokemon.

During the entire training session Ash had Dratini watch as he put Charmander, Pidgey, and Pikachu through various different activities that would improve their speed, stamina, and strength. The majestic snake paid very close attention when Ash taught Charmander metal claw, Pikachu double team, and Pidgey quick attack.

Although she found all of the training that they did appealing it wasn't until they started to spar that Dratini really got excited. As she watched her new friends compete she started to feel an overwhelming sensation that told her that this is what he was meant to do. She was a dragon and dragons lived for battle.

So, for the rest of the evening and during their travels the next day Dratini took that time to think up a plot to convince Ash that she was ready to train. All she could come up with… was to beg.

Although she wasn't completely satisfied with the results, she was content for now because at least she wouldn't be left out completely.

* * *

It was around 12:30 p.m., the raven haired trainer and his pokemon had just finished their lunch after a rigorous training session.

This was the first day since he started traveling with Alex and Leaf that he was able to resume his normal training schedule. He had woken up early in the morning without waking up his friends and wrote them a note saying that he would be back at 1 before wandering off to find a good place to train.

The morning had started off a little bit shaky when Dratini begged him to let her train for the very first time. But, overall it was a success. Even Dratini improved as he worked with her on mastering haze and wrap.

But, now it was almost time for him to head back to camp so he could meet back up with his travel companions. Before doing so he pulled out his pokedex' to check his pokemon's progress.

**Charmander: Level 14**

**Pidgey: Level 14**

**Pikachu: Level 19**

**Dratini: Level 3**

Ash smiled as he congratulated his friends for their hard work. "Great job today guys! We'll pick it back up tomorrow."

He returned Charmander and Pidgey back into their pokeballs, but before he would return Dratini he decided that she deserved a little extra praise since it was her first day. "Dratini, could you come here for a second?"

The dragon-type gladly slithered over to Ash.

The trainer from Pallet gently pat her on the head. "Dratini, I just want to say that I'm really proud of you. Although I was skeptical at first, I think that you did a great job today.

Pikachu scampered to her side wanting to give Dratini praise as well. "Pika.. pika."

The young Dratini lovingly rubbed her head against Ash's leg before he returned her to her pokeball.

"Well, Pikachu I think it's time we met back up with the others."

"Chaa!" Pikachu leaped onto his masters head which was quickly becoming his favorite resting spot.

The two friends trotted back in the direction of their camp ready to see what the day had planned for them.

* * *

"Who's this guy?" Ash asked his friends as he walked back into camp. "And what the hell is he doing with that sword!"

Both Alex and Leaf looked at Ash with the same confused expression before Alex answered. "I have no idea. Leaf and I just got back from training and this psychotic wanna be samurai tried to freaking kill us!"

Ash brought his attention back to the stranger. He looked around the same age as Ash and wore a pair of wooden clog shoes, a blue samurai-style skirt, a red and black breast plate, and some absurd looking black and gold helmet.

The raven haired trainer wasn't quite sure what had happened. But he had grown to consider Alex and Leaf as good friends of his and if what they said was true this kid had tried to harm them. _No one messes with my friends. _

Ash pointed at the boy with a fierce look in his eyes, the same look that he had given team rocket back in Viridian City. "Explain yourself right now!"

The samurai boy frantically waved his hands in panic. "You can call me Samurai and this is all one giant misunderstanding! I never meant to harm anyone it was merely a test to see if either of them was worthy of battling me."

Ash wasn't buying it. "What kind of crap logic is that! Are you an idiot. Who uses a sword to see if someone is worthy of a pokemon battle?"

Samurai sweat dropped. "It's not even a real sword. I was simply testing their reflexes and desire for battle. I battled a boy from pallet town yesterday and although it was a close match, in the end he came out victorious. Ever since then I have been waiting to find another trainer just as skilled in order to redeem myself."

It was Ash's turn to sweat drop. _Not even a real sword… wait a second he must be talking about Gary. _"Was this trainers name Gary?"

Samurai grimaced at the sound of Gary's name. "Yes, I believe so."

"Who's Gary?" asked Leaf feeling the need to speak up.

Ash sighed. "Gary is Professor Oak's grandson he's from Pallet like us. He happens to be my rival."

It was Alex's turn to say something. "I didn't know you had a rival Ash."

Ash turned to answer Alex. "Gary and I have been rivals for as long as I can remember. Let's just say we don't exactly get along."

Samurai forcibly breeched himself back into the conversation. "If you are Gary's rival, then it's settled I challenge you to a pokemon battle! I can't think of a better way to restore my honor."

The raven haired trainer was still a little bit upset about the terms in which they had met. But, decided that this Samurai kid wasn't a threat and that a battle would be good for his pokemon. Ash quickly became excited on account that this would be his very first battle, unless he counted those 3 clowns from team rocket. "I accept! What are the rules."

Alex jumped in between Ash and Samurai with a look of determination in his eyes. "This will be a two on two battle! First trainer to have both of his pokemon knocked out loses! I will be the referee of today's match." And with that last bit of information Alex bowed.

Everyone other than Alex face palmed, Ash and Samurai quickly gained their composure. But, Leaf stared at Alex in disbelief _He can be a real freak sometimes. _

"Alright Samurai you make the first move." Ash spoke calmly.

"Very well, Pinsir I choose you!" Samurai tossed out a pokeball and emerging from the red and white sphere was a strange looking brown bug pokemon with 2 large spiky pincers and a set of multiple sharp teeth.

Ash wasn't familiar with the strange pokemon so he decided that he would pull out his pokedex' to find out more information.

"**Pinsir-The Stag Beetle Pokemon-It grips its prey in its pincers and squeezes hard. It can't move if it's cold, so it lives in warm places."**

_So I guess it's safe to assume that I should probably avoid those pincers. _"Charmander, you're up." Ash summoned his fire lizard, who was immediately prepared for battle.

Samurai was the first to make a move. "Pinser get in close and use bind!" The stag beetle pokemon sprinted in Charmanders direction while lowering its head in attempt to catch its opponent within the grasp of its horns.

"Charmander dodge and chain with ember!" The fire lizard waited for Pinser to get close before nimbly sidestepping it and unleashing a powerful ball of fire that hit pincer point blank. The attack did a lot of damage being that it was a direct hit and super effective.

Samurai's jaw dropped but he quickly shook off his surprise and gave Pinser another order. "Pinser get it back with a seismic toss!"

The heavily damaged Pinser wasn't ready to give up after 1 attack and began to charge Charmander for a second time.

"swat it's arms away, and use your new move!" Pinser reached for Charmander in order to use seismic toss, but was thrown off balance as Charmander used his claws to swat Pinser's away.

Charmander's sharp claws then began to glow in a metallic hue as he quickly slashed Pinser across the chest with a forceful abrupt motion.

Pinser cried out in pain before falling on its back unconscious with swirls in its eyes.

Everyone except for Ash was speechless. The raven haired boy barely had a week under his belt and he was already capable this.

Alex: _How…how is he already this strong? I don't understand._

_Leaf: Maybe I should start training with Ash. It's pretty obvious that he knows what he is doing._

"How…how long have you been training that Charmander?" asked Samurai, voice trembling.

"Just about a week now, why do you ask?" Ash spoke while raising an eyebrow.

Samurai's eyes looked like they were about to pop out of his head. "A week! How the hell is it so strong?"

Ash smirked. "We trained…how else?"

It was Alex's turn to speak up as he announced the results of the match. "P-pinsir is unable to battle, Charmander is the winner."

Samurai continued to look at Ash and Charmander dumfounded, before finally getting his act together. "Metapod, you're up!" coming forth from its pokeball was an odd looking green cocoon looking creature shaped like a crescent moon. Its eyes darted around lazily as they tried to get a grip on the situation.

Ash remembered reading somewhere that the only attack Metapod could learn was harden. He wasn't going to give it a chance to raise its defensive stats.

"Charmander finish this battle now, full power ember!" The flame on Charmander's tail grew slightly as he quickly took a deep breath. It than dwindled down to its original size as he released a powerful burst of fire much larger than one he used against Pinser. The fire ball shot through the air at an alarming rate leaving a sharp whistling sound in the air.

"Medapod use h-" Samurai was too late. Metapod was now sprawled out on his back charred and unconscious. The poor thing never even got an order.

"Metapod is unable to battle, Charmander is the winner! This battle goes to Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town!"

Ash let a smile creep to his face as he bent down and congratulated Charmander for a good fought battle. "Well buddy, we did it we won our first battle."

Charmander looked up at his friend with a smile of his own before raising his fist in victory. "Char!"

Both trainers returned their pokemon to their pokeballs and met for a customary handshake. "Well Ash I guess I ran into quite the trainer today."

Ash rubbed the back of his head sheepishly not quite sure what to say. "Umm.. Yeah I guess, let's have a rematch sometime."

Samurai reached into his wallet and handed Ash his winnings before meeting his eyes with a look of determination. "I look forward to it."

The strange boy walked off into the forest without saying another word leaving Ash, Leaf, and Alex alone at the camp site.

"That was incredible!" Leaf shrieked enthusiastically congratulating Ash on his victory

"Yeah man how'd you turn Charmander into such a beast!"

Ash sighed, "We train hard, I suggest you guys do the same because the gym leaders aren't going to be as easy to defeat."

Both Alex and Leaf thought about what Ash said for a second before Alex broke the silence. "Oh by the way while Leaf and I were out training I caught a weedle!"

Ash's curiosity spiked. "I've never seen a weedle before?"

* * *

Ash, Alex, and Leaf spent the next couple of days training and making the final haul to Pewter City. As they looked down over the edge of the forest they could see the vast city of Pewter that made Pallet look like a small village.

The three along with Pikachu reflected over the 5 days that they spent in the forest with a sparkle in their eyes.

Ash: _Charmander and Pidgey are on the verge of evolving. Pikachu is on his way towards being a force to be reckoned with, and Dratini should be ready to battle by the time we reach the next city._

Leaf: _After what Ash taught us I am confident._

Alex: _This gym leader won't know what hit him. The Pallet town trio has finally arrived._

Ash looked Pikachu in the eyes before they made their descent towards the city. "You ready to start things off with a bang!"

"Pika pi!"

* * *

**Ash's Pokemon: **

**Charmander level 16**

**Pidgey level 16**

**Pikachu level 20**

**Dratini level 7**

**Author Notes: I know a lot of you might be upset about Ash not getting Caterpie, but It was necessary for the development of the story. Don't worry he'll still get most of his pokemon from the anime. Including squirtle and bulbasuar. If your wondering where Team Rocket was... i'm sorry but their is no way in hell that I am writing them in every single chapter. **


	4. Pewter City: A Battle With Brock!

**Review Response****:**

**Dragonheart1234: I appreciate all of the support you have shown this story so far. As for the pairing? I have yet to decide whether or not I want to put him with Leaf. I was sort of leaning towards putting Leaf with Alex. Then again nothings set in stone until it's been uploaded so it is possible. As for the Ash/? I really don't want to give things like who Ash is going to end up with away. I like to keep people guessing lol.**

**Uranium325: I sort of planned it out that way. Alex definitely will have the ego down the road when he becomes a competent trainer.**

**Exwindzz: Actually I'm glad you brought up the whole lucario thing. Is anyone else interested in me possibly giving Ash a lucario while he is in Kanto? I could always wait until they reach Sinnoh but that could take forever. On top of that if I were to give him one would you guys prefer for him to evolve a riolu, or to just catch a lucario?**

**Agoge: Evolution is one of the reasons why I wrote this. I think I will have all of Ash's pokemon evolve at some point. Except for Pikachu evolving Pikachu would be a crime. **

**Question from the Author****: At some point during the Kanto saga I am going to have Oak raise the limit of pokemon Ash can carry on him. How many do you suggest? I was thinking either 10 or 12?**

**Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon, word.**

* * *

Alex, Leaf, and Ash used their first day in Pewter to heal their pokemon at the pokemon center and to learn as much as they could about their opponent.

After speaking with Nurse Joy and several of the citizens that lived in Pewter they learned that the gym leader was a 15 year old teenager named Brock Slate and that he specialized in rock-types.

Once they were satisfied with what they had learned and finished up sight-seeing for the day they rented out a room at the pokemon center, looking forward to getting a good night's rest.

Ash was lying in his bed staring at the ceiling trying his hardest to force himself to sleep. This proved troublesome though, he was just too freaking excited and he couldn't help but continuously go over different battle strategies in his head. _I'll start off with Pikachu. Pikachu may be faced with a major type disadvantage but that doesn't change the fact that he is my strongest pokemon. His electric attacks will be useless…but if I can utilize his speed and the new move that we worked on I should be able to find a way. As for my second pokemon I'll go with Charmander. He's my starter after all, I can't leave him out of the battle it just wouldn't be right._

After pondering over his decision for a while the raven haired trainer slowly drifted off to sleep. His dreams ironically consisted of a grueling battle between a familiar fire lizard and a momentous snake made of rock.

* * *

The Pallet town trio stood outside the tall massive granite style doors that served as the entrance to the Pewter city gym. The building in front of them was rather tall and had a roof that gave it a boulder like appearance.

Leaf croaked out a few words, it was obvious to Ash that she was struggling with nerves. "We-well guys I-guess this is it."

Alex had his usual goofy grin spread wide across his face as he held his fist up with confidence. "I'm so jacked! Let's do this!"

Ash simply grunted in annoyance, aggravated by his friend's forwardness. But, although he didn't show it on the outside he felt exactly the same way Alex did. This was an exciting moment for him and he wasn't going to screw it up.

The raven haired trainer gave Pikachu a look that signified confidence as he pushed the oversized doors inwards so that they could enter. Inside was complete darkness.

"Brock are you in there!" Alex bellowed.

A spot light on the other side of the room flickered on to reveal a short cement staircase that lead to a stone platform. On the stone platform sat a teenager who the group assumed must be Brock. He had on brown cargo pants, an orange t-shirt, and a green sleeveless vest with multiple pockets. The teen had brown spiky hair, and a stern facial expression, but what made him unique was his eyes which were almost completely shut and looked like two horizontal lines.

"Who goes there?" spoke Brock in a soft confident tone.

"My name is Alex," replied the blonde as he glanced back at Ash and Leaf "and these are my friends Ash and Leaf we are here to challenge you for the badge!"

"Very well my name is Brock and I accept you're challenge. This will be a two on two battle the challenger may substitute. Who will be the first of your little group to step forward!"

As Brock finished up speaking the lights to the entire room turned on to reveal a rock battle field. There were two trainer boxes drawn up with what looked like chalk facing each other about 20 yards apart.

Surprising the two boys, Leaf was the first person to step inside of the challenger box. "I-I-will be your first challenger."

Brock gave the young girl a quick look over and smirked "very well, Onix Go!" Emerging from the red and white sphere was a humongous snake looking creature that was probably somewhere along the lines of 25 feet long.

Leaf took a few steps back clearly intimidated by the large beast.

Ash was a little intimidated as well, but decided that he should probably try and give Leaf a few words of encouragement. "Don't worry Leaf you're prepared, remember our training and you'll be alright!"

The brunette took Ash's words to heart and quickly reached for one of her pokeball's "Rattata! You're up." Coming forth from its red and white sphere was Leaf's purple and white rat pokemon.

"Hah! You seriously hope to defeat Onix with that! What a joke." Brock was on the verge of laughter as he stared out at his pokemon's opponent.

"Don't let it bother you Rattata start things off with quick attack!" The purple and white rat pokemon scurried off in a blur hoping to strike the first blow.

"Take it." The large rock-type seemed amused as the tiny normal-type bashed into its body without even getting a budge.

"Now use tackle!" Onix sent its long body forward with a powerful thrust trying to crush the small critter with its immense body weight.

"Ratatta use quick attack to escape!" Ratatta was quick to dodge his opponents attack understanding that even one hit from the massive creature could result in a knock-out.

"Smash that rat, Onix!" Onix attempted another tackle, which once again was evaded by Rattata.

"Quick attack! And when you get close use pursuit!" Leaf's rattata took off in a blur once again, but this time when it got close it shrouded itself in a field of dark energy before barreling into Onix's long body.

The rock-type cried out in pain, but quickly regained its composure. "Rock Throw!" Onix materialized several large rocks out of thin air and proceeded to try and toss them at Rattata with its tail.

"Quick attack to avoid the rocks, than follow it up with another pursuit!" Rattata followed his master's command as he nimbly avoided the rocks that were being hurled in his direction. He then lowered his head and once again called upon dark energy as he jabbed the momentous beast with his entire body.

Onix cried out in pain for a second time as it started to feel the damange caused by pursuit.

_She's not bad….but a Rattata will not defeat Onix. _"Onix end this now with Bind!" In one quick motion Onix used its giant tail to swipe up Ratatta and then proceeded to try and squeeze it with its strength.

"oh no Rattata!" screamed Leaf as she heard the cries of her precious little rodent. _I've got to figure something out before Ratatta is knocked unconscious._

But, it was too late Onix tossed Ratatta back in front of Leaf with swirls in its eyes. Leaf returned Rattata to his pokeball before whispering "good job Rattata, I'll get you all healed up after the battle."

She took a quick look at Onix and realized that the massive snake had barely taken any damage. _I'm still not ready for this even though Bulbasuar has type advantage there is no way he can finish off Onix as well as whatever his second pokemon is. Unless… yes that might work, at least on Onix_

Brock was starting to get agitated by the stall in the battle. "Choose your next pokemon!"

Leaf snapped her head up with a smirk, having just thought up a plan that could swing the battle around in her favor. "Bulbasaur, I need you!" Emerging from a flash of brilliant light was the tiny saurian pokemon.

Brock gave the little grass-type a quick look over. _I'm going to have to be much more careful this time around, Bulbasaur has the type advantage. _"Onix start things off with tackle!"

_Perfect.. _"Bulbasaur use vine whip to jump as high as you can!" The tiny seed pokemon used her vines to propel herself above the attack avoiding it with ease. "Now use sleep powder!"

Bulbasaur used the bulb on its back to secrete and spread a blue colored powder all over Onix instantly putting it to sleep.

* * *

Ash gave Alex an intriguing look before commenting on the battle for the first time. "That was a great strategy using Bulbasaur's vine whip to jump like that, I might use that when I get a grass type."

Alex answered in a shocked voice. "No kidding, who knew Leaf could think on her toes like that."

* * *

_This is bad… _"Onix, you have to wake up!" Brock pleaded to his pokemon.

" Bulbasaur finish it off with a Vine whip assault! Don't stop until it's out cold!" After about the seventh swing of Bulbasaurs vines Brock was caught recalling a knocked out Onix with swirls in its eyes.

Brock gave Leaf a small smile before speaking "I've got to say Leaf I'm impressed, but the battle isn't over yet geodude you're up!" appearing from its pokeball was a levitating boulder pokemon. It had two strong arms protruding from its sides as well as two fierce looking eyes that reflected experience.

Leaf was unfamiliar with the rock-type so she pulled out her pokedex' to learn more.

**Geodude-The Rock Pokemon-Commonly found near mountain trails, etc. If you step on one by accident, it gets angry.**

_Alright so it's pretty clear that Geodude are naturally aggressive, maybe I can use that to my advantage. _"Bulbasaur are you ready!"

The female bulbasaur looked back at her trainer with a look of determination in her eyes. "Bulba!"

"Alright start things off with a vine whip." Bulbasuar expelled her vines from their niche and swung them at Geodude.

"Geodude grab the vines and pull it in!" Geodude did as its trainer pleaded and snatched Bulbasaur's vines in midair. It then proceeded to reel Bulbasaur in. "Get ready to use rock smash!"

_I can't believe he fell for that. _"Bulbasaur use poison powder!" Much like sleep powder Bulbasaur released a powder from its bulb except this time it was purple.

With direct contact poison powder caused Geodude to glow with a purple aura signifying that it had been poisoned.

_Damn! How could I be so careless._ "Geodude you're going to have to endure it, continue with rock smash!"

Geodude fought through the poison as it continued to reel in Bulbasaur to deliver its attack.

"Bulbasaur use your vines to dodge!" The small dinosaur pokemon used Brocks methods against him as she swung to the left using the momentum Geodude had given her.

"Now use leech seed!" Bulbasaur spat multiple tiny green seeds out of its bulb each connecting with Geodude. Once the leech seed was planted they grew quickly transforming into a collection of vines that wrapped around Geodudes body. "Bulbasaur started to feel its energy being revitalized as it stole Geodude's health.

Geodude roared out with pain as it felt the leech seed draining its health along with the horrible sensation of being poisoned.

"Geodude you got to hang in there!" The strong arm pokemon didn't let its resolve waiver as it kept itself afloat ready to receive its next command. "Use Rock Throw now!"

Leaf was a little bit taken back by the command expecting that Geodude would have already been finished. She wasn't able to get an order off in time and watched as Bulbasaur was smashed by a high velocity boulder.

Bulbasaur was thrown across the gym and was heavily damaged by the attack. She managed to stand up, but was shaking with exhaustion showing clear signs that the battles between Onix and Geodude were starting to catch up to her. "Bulbasaur can you continue!" Leaf yelped out to her pokemon with worry in her voice.

* * *

"This battles over," Ash said calmly to Alex.

"What are you talking about, Bulbasaur still looks like she has some fight left in her."

Ash smirked, "Who said I was talking about Bulbasaur."

* * *

To Leaf's delight Bulbasaur didn't need to finish off Geodude as the levitating rock pokemon fell to the ground unconscious succumbing to the leech seed and poison.

Bulbasaur scampered back to her trainer's side and jumped up into her arms with joy, clearly excited that she had won her first battle.

Leaf spun around in circles with Bulbasaur in her arms laughing as she felt the sensation of winning her very first gym battle. "We did it Bulbasaur! We won! We won! We won!"

Her celebrating came to a halt when she found Brock standing in front of her holding a small metal trinket that was shaped like a rock. "Congratulations Leaf. As a symbol of your victory at the Pewter gym I reward you with the Boulder Badge."

Leaf took the boulder badge and after examining it for a little while in awe she slipped it into her pocket. "Thank you for the battle Brock, I've never had that much fun before."

Brock smirked, "It was an honor battling a young trainer as talented as you. I expect great things out of you in the future."

Leaf blushed as a result of the praise before gathering her thoughts to answer. "If you think I have talent wait until you battle those two. Alex may be an idiot but he is unpredictable, and when it comes to Ash let's just say you're going to need to step up your game a little he's the best of the group."

Brock was a little bit taken back by Leaf's words. _If she is the weakest of the three than I am the in for a long day._

* * *

It was finally Ash's turn to battle after waiting an hour for Brock to return from the pokemon center and then repeating the process once again when Alex defeated him.

The raven haired trainer stood in the challenger's box with a look of determination in his eyes ready to put all the training he had put his pokemon through to the test.

After watching Alex defeat Brock's Geodude with his Beedrill (evolved during training), and then somehow pulling out an amazing victory against his Onix with Nidoran Ash felt as if he had the perfect strategy.

"So Ash I hear from both Alex and Leaf that you are quite the young trainer!" Brock exclaimed from the other side of the rock terrain arena.

Ash smirked, "I havn't done anything yet so I guess we'll find out."

Brock let out a light chuckle. "I've got to say it's been a long time since I have been this excited for a battle, and I will warn you now that when I get excited…I go all out!"

Brock tossed a pokeball out into the arena. Coming into view after the flash of bright light faded was a large Rhinoceros made of stone standing on all fours, with one roar its voice was heard echoing across the walls for what seemed like forever. The rhino pokemon slid its front right leg back and forth on the ground kicking up dirt letting Ash know that it was ready to charge once given the command.

_Crap….I never even factored in the possibility that he would use another pokemon. Why the hell did Leaf and Alex have to go on a stupid rant about me being better than them._

Ash snatched his pokedex' from his pocket interested to see what he was getting himself into.

**Rhyhorn-The spike pokemon-Rhyhorn's massive bones are 1000 times harder than human bones. It can easily knock a trailer flying.**

_Rhyhorn's definitely a powerful pokemon, I'm going to have to avoid direct contact. Once direct hit and Pikachu is a goner, good news is it doesn't look very agile so if I can keep Pikachu on the flank that should keep Brock on his heels._

"Pikachu, you're up buddy." The small electric mouse jumped down from his trainers shoulder landing on all fours ready to battle. He let small bursts of electricity dribble out of the red spots on his cheeks clearly showing confidence in his abilities.

Brock was quite surprised to say the least. "You plan to battle Rhyhorn with an electric type, I don't see how this battle could possibly turn out well for you."

"If I were you I would have learned not to underestimate my opponent after Leaf beat you. And to make things clear do not underestimate Pikachu if you do you might as well hand over that badge right now." Ash said in a cold irritated tone.

"You sure are confident, we're about to find out if you're as good as your friends say you are. Rhyhorn Fury attack!"

Rhyhorn lowered its head and charged at an alarming rate, ready to dig its powerful horn into Pikachu's tiny body.

"Dodge with double team!" The electric mouse sprinted out of the way leaving after images all around the battle field. With the illusion of multiple Pikachu's surrounding Rhyhorn, Brock wasn't sure how to counter.

_I've got to find the real one… but where is it. _Rhyhorn was just as confused as his master, this became obvious as it was constantly glancing back and forth trying to figure out a course of action.

"Use Thunder wave," The electric mouse stopped it's double team, but distributed a weak surge of electricity at Rhyhorn causing it fall to its knees feeling the paralysis that comes with the attack. "Now use quick attack to get close and hit it hard with your new move!"

Pikachu took off in a blur that made Rattata's quick attack look like a steady jog. Then when he got close to the kneeled Rhyhorn he jumped up into the air and used his momentum to flip, all the while turning his tail into what looked like a steel lightning bolt rod. Pikachu drove its tail into Rhyhorn's side causing an absurd amount of damage.

Brock's jaw was practically touching the ground as he gasped. _He was right when he said not to underestimate his Pikachu that much is obvious._

The gym leader quickly shook off his surprise as his heavily damaged Rhyhorn waited for a command. "Rhyhorn smash that mouse with stomp!"

Rhyhorn was able to shake off the paralysis and lift its front legs off the ground as it prepared to bring them down on top of Pikachu's head.

"Dodge it with quick attack, and us thunderbolt." Pikachu was able to dash out of the way of Rhyhorn's stomp once he was at a safe distance he unleashed a powerful thunderbolt that struck Rhyhorn where he stood.

The attack didn't seem to do anything but, that wasn't what Ash was trying to accomplish though. He was simply trying to buy time so that he could find a weakness in Rhyhorn's stone armor.

_Now what could he possibly be up to, it's obvious that he is a good trainer so why try electric attacks on a rock-type._ _No matter… _"Takedown!" Brock bellowed.

Ash stared down Rhyhorn as it fought off the paralysis in attempt to trample Pikachu. As Ash examined the barreling rock-type lower its head to attack the idea popped into his head. _Hmmm…I wonder if I could turn that horn into a lightning rod. _"Pikachu full power thunder bolt, aim for the horn!"

The electric-type heard his trainers command and leapt up into the air ready to unleash the largest thunderbolt he could muster.

_Aim for the horn…..NO WAY! _"Rhyhorn get the hell out of their!"

Brock's pleas didn't make a difference as Pikachu conjured up a massive blast of electricity that struck Rhyhorn's horn. With the horn acting as an electric rod, the pre-evolved form of Rhydon was struck down charred and unconscious.

* * *

Leaf spoke out in awe directing her comment towards Alex. "Ash sure is amazing isn't he, who else could have come up with something like that?"

"You got that right, my boy Ash will one day become the best trainer out there. Let's just hope that we don't fall too far behind."

The brunette was somewhat taken back by Alex's reaction and chose not to comment on it. _It sure is something to hear Alex talk about someone other than himself. He must really look up to Ash._

* * *

_This kid is a genius. Who would have thought that you could use Rhyhorn's horn as a lightning rod. Ash is going to be something else with a few years of experience under his belt._

Brock returned Rhyhorn with a smile. "That was a great effort Rhyhorn, try not to sulk around the gym for too long."

Ash looked across the arena at his opponent. "I told you not to underestimate Pikachu, Brock!"

"And it looks like I found out the hard way, well let's see how he fairs against something a little bit bigger." Brock threw his second pokeball out onto the field releasing Onix. Except this one wasn't the same Onix that he used against Alex and Leaf it was at least 5 feet longer and thicker in bulk. It also had a set of piercing eyes that seemed to reflect experience."

Ash gulped. _Alright Charmander time to see what you're made of. _"Pikachu that's enough for today return!"

The small electric critter sighed in relief obviously thrilled that he wouldn't have to face off against the momentous beast.

Pikachu scampered back to Ash's side receiving whispering praise from his friend. "Wait to go Pikachu you were great. Now let's leave the rest up to Charmander."

After congratulating Pikachu on a good fought battle Ash unclipped his fire lizard's pokeball from his belt. "Charmander, report to the battle field!"

Ash's starter materialized from a flash of dazzling light. The fire-type crossed its arms with assurance as he laid eyes on his opponent.

_So we got a Charmander, I would say that I've got the advantage but, I'm not underestimating it like I did Pikachu. _Thought brock.

"Charmander start things off with smokescreen!" Charmander coughed up a large cloud of black smoke that immediately spread throughout the gym taking away both trainers sight.

_Shit, I can't see anything….But, neither can he so what's his move. _"Onix, you're going to have use harden!"

Inside the smoke Onix raised its defensive stats with harden while it waited for any sign of the tiny fire lizard.

_I may not be able to see what's going on in there but Charmander has good vision, and it is kind of hard to lose sight of a beast as large as that Onix. "_Charmander hit it with a barrage of ember!"

At the heart of the smoke Charmander could make out a large shadowy figure and proceeded to launch multiple medium sized fire balls at it.

Ash and Brock could make out multiple glowing orange orbs flying around in the smoke and they could hear Onix's cries as it was pelted numerous times.

"Onix follow the source and use tackle when you track down Charmander!" Brock yelled deciding that he needed to act quickly before things got out of hand.

_Good, serious damage won't be dealt unless I can get Onix to get close. I'm screwed if he can track down Charmander though._ "Charmander wait for Onix to get close and dodge!"

Onix followed the direction in which the ember attack was coming from looking for any sign of the small lizard. When Onix caught sight of him it drove its head into the ground where Charmander stood trying to crush its opponent.

Charmander was able to dodge and at this point the smoke screen was starting to dissipate so, Brock and Ash could see what was going on. "Charmander run alongside it and use Metal claw!"

The lizard pokemon darted across Onix's right side dragging his hardened claws across its body.

The large rock snake roared out in agony as it felt its body being penetrated by Charmander's steel coated hook shaped fingernails.

As Charmander reached the end of Onix's long body Brock saw an opening. "Onix scoop it up with your tail and use Bind!"

The massive creature swiftly used its tail to snatch Charmander off the ground. The fire lizard felt helpless as he was caught in Onix's grasp all the while getting the life squeezed out of it.

_Crap. Crap. Crap. This isn't good, I've got to get Charmander out of there. _"Charmander try to break free with another metal claw!"

Ash's command was heard, but there was nothing Charmander could do he was much weaker in strength, and had no way to move his arms. The poor fire lizard screamed out in pain as he felt his body being crushed.

"What are you going to do now Ash?! This is checkmate!" Brock bellowed across the arena.

Ash frantically reached for Charmanders pokeball not wanting his starter to get seriously injured. Ash proceeded to try and return Charmander, but Onix's massive bulk kept blocking the beam of red light.

_What do I do?! I couldn't be in a worse situation. I can't return Charmander, and he is in so much pain. Shit…I only have one option. _"Brock! That's enough I f-"

Ash was cut off by a flash of illuminating white light that engulfed Charmander.

The aspiring pokemon master stared out in awe as the white light started to change shape. _He's..he's evolving. _The white light ended as quickly as it started and what it left behind wasn't Charmander, the creature was much larger and instead of being orange it was a dark red. The flame on its tail had a greater mass, and its eyes practically glowed with fierceness.

The newly evolved larger fire lizard used its new found strength to jar its way loose. On its way back to the ground it retaliated with a massive purplish stream of fire that struck Onix in the face, causing the rock-type to howl out in pain.

"Onix!" Brock called out to his pokemon worried for its health. _Shit… I just can't catch a freaking break today can I._

On the other side of the battle field Ash hastily pulled out his pokedex'.

"**Charmeleon- The flame pokemon- When it swings its burning tail, it elevates the temperature to unbearably high levels. After evolving from Charmander this Charmeleon can use Dragon rage.**

This bit of information proved true, as Ash felt the temperature in the room rising dramatically causing him to sweat.

* * *

Leaf wiped the sweat from her forehead as she fanned herself with her other hand. "I'm happy that Charmander evolved, but damn has it gotten hot in here."

Alex was too busy observing the battle to notice. "Who cares about that are you watching this! This battle is freaking intense!"

* * *

Charmeleon looked back at his trainer giving him a smirk, letting Ash know that he was ready to end this.

"Alright Charmeleon use metal claw! And finish that overgrown snake off with Dragon rage!" The newly evolved Charmeleon sprinted off in Onix's direction sharpening his claws along the way.

"Onix stop it with rock throw!" Brock cried desperately, realizing that Onix was on his last breath and if Charmeleon's assault landed the battle would be over.

Onix tried its hardest to fend off Charmeleon with a barrage of speeding boulders.

Charmeleon impetuously dodged boulder by boulder shortening the distance between himself and his target. When he was close enough to strike he used his strong legs to propel himself into the air and in a powerful x-motion the fire lizard slashed away at Onix's face chipping away rock in the process.

When he heard Onix screech out in pain he determined that his trainer's last order would be his last for the day. Charmeleon took a deep breath as he felt a strong amount of energy building up inside of him waiting to be released. Charmeleon let the energy do as it pleased as he unleashed a powerful surge of purple flame that scorched the shrieking Onix.

Charmeleon landed on his two feet with style, he then turned around and walked back to his trainer's side hearing a loud crashing sound behind him.

Both trainers were speechless by the results of the battle. Onix was sprawled out on the ground unconscious. Charmeleon was at his trainer's side filing his claws nonchalantly.

Ash brought his gaze to his starter finally getting past the shock to congratulate him. "Charmeleon, that was… that was freaking awesome!"

The fire lizard looked at his friend slightly amused. He then released a small cloud of smoke from his nostrils and gave Ash an awkward thumbs up. "meleon char mele!"

Charmeleon and Ash's moment came to a halt when Brock trotted onto the scene with a smirk. "I've got to say Ash,that was the best battle I've had in a long time."

Ash scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Thanks, but I've got to give all the credit to Pikachu and Charmeleon. After all they're the ones that deserve it."

Brock sighed. "And you're the one that trained them don't forget that. Anyways as a symbol of your victory here at the Pewter gym I reward you with the boulder badge." Brock reached into his pocket and pulled out the badge.

Ash carefully grabbed it from Brocks hand treating it delicately. He then turned to Pikachu and Charmeleon who were trying to sneak a look for themselves. "Look guys we won our first badge! We just need 7 more and we will be on our way to the Indigo League!"

"Meleon!"

"Pika!"

Leaf and Alex walked on to the scene. Leaf was the first to give her 2 cents "Ash, that was an amazing battle, congratulations!"

Alex than spoke up with an expression of admiration, "Yeah bro, that metal claw dragon rage combo at the end was dirty!"

"Thanks guys, but like I told Brock all the credit goes to these guys," Ash gestured towards Charmeleon and Pikachu. "I couldn't have done anything if it weren't for them.

Both Charmeleon and Pikachu scratched the back of their head sheepishly a habit that they had picked up from their trainer.

Brock interrupted the conversation with a question. "So, where are you guys off to next?"

"I guess we'll travel through Mt. moon, to get to Cerulean city." Ash answered in earnest having already thought it through a night ago.

"Yeah that's probably the quickest route, well I wish you guys the best of luck and don't be afraid to call the gym every once in a while I would be happy to hear from you guys."

Ash returned Charmeleon to his pokeball as the three trainers nodded in agreement. They then proceeded to say their goodbyes to the squinty eyed gym leader while exiting the boulder shaped building.

"When do you guys want to head to Mt. moon?" Asked Leaf.

"I say the sooner the better!" Alex exclaimed.

Ash simply sighed, "We need to head to the pokemon center before we do anything, Charmeleon and Pikachu need treatment. I also want to give professor Oak and my mother a call."

"Ok, so we'll stay one more night in Pewter and head out first thing in the morning." Leaf suggested.

The conversation was cut off by a loud grumbling sound. Alex blushed in embarrassment as he rubbed his stomach. "Yeah, that sounds good I could definitely do for some grub when we get to the pokemon center."

The walk from the gym to the pokemon center was filled with laughter and joy. All three trainers were proud of themselves and their pokemon, for they had just won their very first gym battle. The feeling was unlike anything they had ever experienced before. Today was the day that their journey officially started, and they were ready to embrace whatever trials that they would encounter in the future.

**To be continued….**

* * *

**Ash's Pokemon:**

**Pikachu-level 20**

**Charmeleon-level 17**

**Pidgey-level 16**

**Dratini-level 7**

* * *

**Author Notes: **

**Please review, I appreciate the support and the criticism.**

**I had a lot of fun writing this chapter. I know a lot of you wanted Brock to join them on this journey but I decided that it would be more interesting without him. Brock will make multiple appearances throughout the story, who knows I might even have him travel with them in the future. I also want to let you guys know that for the gym battles I will switch off with who I write between Leaf and Alex. I don't feel like writing every single one of their battles so I think that this is the best option.**

**I want to note that like Brock the gym leaders in this story will have multiple pokemon. The Brock from the anime only had a geodude and an Onix. If Ash is catching different pokemon I don't see why other people from the anime wouldn't have other pokemon.**

**I also want to give a heads up that I will be completely disregarding evolution by trade in this story. I honestly think the concept is stupid, plus I plan on having Ash and Alex catch pokemon that need to evolve by trade and I'm not about to write a trade and then trade back scene.**

**As for next chapter we travel through mt. moon…. Who knows maybe our trio will catch a few more pokemon. **

**I also want to hear your opinions on fossil pokemon. I've already decided that Ash will catch the Aerodactyl that Charizard battles in the anime. But, I plan on having them find 3 fossils in mt. moon. Dome fossil (kabuto), Helix fossil (Omanyte), and a skull fossil (Cranidos). Leave your suggestion for who gets what fossil in the reviews and I will use what you guys decide. Power to the people! (at least this time) Muahahahahah!. **


	5. Mt Moon: The Legend of the Moon Stone!

**A/N****: **

**Sorry guys for the long wait.. I'll post more often from now on I was just super swamped with homework. Expect things to be weekly again, I may even go twice a week I guess we'll find out.**

**Review Response:**

**ZachTaylor: yeah, later on I may give Ash legendaries. Not any time soon though and as for the others, no. Of the group Ash has the only chance of catching a legendary.**

**Koichoco: Ok think of it this way. This Charmander, is the Charmander from the anime I just made him a starter. I wanted Charizard to be loyal to Ash from the start and this was my way of coming up with a conclusion. I figured if Ash raised Charmander from the start and Ash was smarter Charizard would never rebel. I than replaced the pokemon that Damian abused with something else. So in this world basically Charmander was never owned by Damian.**

**Lucario/Riolu question: **** I have decided not to give Ash a Riolu until the Orange islands so you can look forward to it. This isn't set in stone but, I'm pretty sure.**

**Galantmon7196: I understand your concerns about making Ash too strong right off the bat. But, you have to remember that Dragon's take a long time to raise Dratini won't evolve into a Dragonair until at least badge 5. Dragonite will probably turn up sometime during the Indigo Plateau.**

**Freefall-gypsey: Good idea, but I'm going to evolve all of them. Not all at once and they may not all reach their final forms during the kanto saga but it will happen.**

**Question from the Author:**** One thing that has come up multiple times in reviews is should I evolve Pikachu? I really don't care, I always preferred Pikachu to Raichu but if you guys want I can evolve Pikachu. This is rare for me to give up power on the story and now I have done it twice so enjoy it while it lasts. Pikachu or Raichu?**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon, word.**

* * *

"Mt. Moon, doesn't the name just sound so.. mysterious." Leaf's eyes were shimmering as bright as the stars in the sky as the three friends approached the ample mountainous formation that was called Mt. Moon.

Ash, who was busy giving Pikachu a little rub behind the ears, picked up his gaze and stared out intently at the mountain. "There are several myths regarding Mt. Moon, some people apparently believe that a huge meteor crashed into the mountain back in prehistoric times."

"Really.. a meteor." Alex said while visualizing a massive boulder doused in fire plunging into their destination.

Leaf found the tale interesting and decided to dig a little deeper into the subject, "Is it true?"

Ash continued his gaze towards the mountain as he answered. "I have no idea, but it's called the moon stone and it is supposed to hold all kinds of hidden powers."

"The moon stone huh, but wait I thought that moon stones just help certain pokemon evolve. What makes this moon stone so special?" Asked Alex.

"You're asking the wrong guy, I've just heard stories. If you want to know more you should ask someone who actually does research on Mt. Moon. Maybe they could tell you more." Ash replied.

It was Leaf's turn to speak up. "Well I think that the moon stone sounds so…. mysterious…" The brunettes eyes were twinkling once again as she gawked at the mountain in admiration.

Ash and Alex face palmed. "What is with you and mystery?" Asked Ash actually quite curious to figure out why his female friend was acting so strange.

Alex put a hand on Ash's shoulder as he sighed. "Leaf has a weird appreciation for the mysterious, and strange. Why do you think she is so in love with her metapod? I mean doesn't that guy freak you out, he can just stare at you for hours without blinking it's just not natural."

Alex's comment seemed to break Leaf from her weird infatuation trance, as her face flashed red with anger. "Hey don't talk about Metapod like that!" Her emotions than did a complete 180 as the thought of her favorite cocoon pokemon entered her mind. The ten year old girl was in her own world as she rambled on and on about how great her metapod is.

Ash sighed to himself as he witnessed Leaf's short display of insanity. _Just when I think I've figured them out, they do something to surprise me. I thought that Alex was the strange one, but who knows Leaf might be able to give him a run for his money._

The aspiring pokemon master's thought was interrupted by an ear shattering shriek coming from somewhere up ahead.

"What the hell was that?!"exclaimed Leaf to no one in particular as she jumped back with surprise.

Ash darted off towards the scream without a second thought leaving Alex and Leaf behind.

It didn't take them long to figure out that Ash wasn't going to slow down until he found the source of the scream. So they took off in a dead sprint in attempt to catch up to him.

The blonde and brunette slowed down to a jog as they approached Ash, "Hey man why'd you sprint off like that you could have at least given us-…..oh." Alex's comment came to an end as he saw a man in a white lab coat, hunched over in the fetal position, being attacked by a bunch of blue bat-like creatures.

The pokemon looked to be about 3 feet tall. They were predominately blue in color, except for the inside of their wings and ears which were lavender purple. They had two long skinny appendages that were an extension of their short stubby body. The creatures also had four sharp teeth showing from their always wide open maws.

"It's a bunch of zubat." Alex muttered to the others as he analyzed the situation.

"They're attacking that guy!" Leaf yelled in panic.

Alex pulled out his pokedex' in attempt to learn a little bit more about the bat pokemon.

"**Zubat- The Bat Pokemon- Zubat form colonies in perpetually dark places. Using ultrasonic waves to identify and approach targets. Zubat are very sensitive to light."**

Alex sweat dropped, "Lights not slowing these zubat down any time soon." His thought was interrupted as he felt a sudden pain on the back of his head, "This is no time for jokes moron that guy needs our help!" Lectured leaf, as she rubbed the back of her hand, which she had used to strike Alex.

"Ok ok.. You didn't have to hit me!" Complained the blonde.

"Pikachu thudershock!" bellowed Ash.

"Chuuuu!"

Alex and Leaf took their attention away from each other and turned around to watch Pikachu blast the zubat with a surge of electricity.

The zubat screeched out in pain as they immediately fluttered their way away from the frightened man. The blue bat-like creatures made their way back to where the group assumed they must have come from. Which was a large cave opening, Ash recognized it from the map as the entrance to Mt. Moon.

The pallet town trio trotted over to the man. Who was now moaning and rolling around on the ground in pain.

"Are you okay?" Asked Ash concerned for the poor man's health.

After a quick study Ash took in the man's appearance. He had on a dirtied white lab coat as well as some scuffed up tan slacks. His hair was brown in color and messy, probably a result of being attacked by the zubat. He was also sporting a pair of average looking glasses.

Ash was starting to get worried after not getting a response right away, but was blown back with shock when the stranger jumped up from the ground with tears of joy.

"Wow, you guys are the greatest! I'm talking super fantabulistic! Two thumbs up! That's got to be the best rescue I've ever had!" The man was partaking in several strange and unusual poses in celebration.

The three friends simultaneously face palmed. Ash was the only one to speak, "Uhhh…really it's no big deal, just glad we could help."

The strange man ignored Ash, focusing his attention on Pikachu who was making himself comfortable on Ash's shoulder. "They say man's best friend is a pokemon, and with you two I believe it."

Ash sighed, "Oh, that's nice."

The man in the lab coat's eyes started to glimmer as he stared at Ash and Pikachu, "I'm so moved, such friendship I thought I'd never see. When the zubat began attacking me I thought I was done for," He then gave them a weird waving gesture with his hands as he continued his rant, "when who should arrive, two heroes thanks to whom I'm alive." He then raised his two arms in triumph as he stared up at the sky, "I'm alive! Thank you so much! Thank you!"

Leaf simply shook her head in slight embarrassment for having witnessed such an odd display. "He certainly doesn't look like the poetic type."

The man then put a hand on Ash's shoulder as he stared into his eyes, "Did I tell you how thankful I am that you saved me?"

At this point Ash was starting to get a little freaked out by the over dramatic stranger, "Um.. yeah you did, as well as probably every pokemon and person within a ten mile radius."

Alex interrupted the awkward moment with a question, "Excuse me sir, but why were those zubat attacking you?"

The man staggered back with a look of horror on his face, "Hhhhuuuuuhhhh, don't call me sir, my name is Seymore. Knowledge, research, I am Seymore the scientist!"

The three friends face palmed once again, which was slowly starting to become the theme of the day. "Ok…Seymore the scientist, why were you attacked by zubat?" Asked Alex for the second time.

Seymore's mood quickly shifted into something a little more serious. "It would be easier for me to just show you, why don't you three follow me?"

* * *

"See, the cave is all lit up inside. Somebody has strung these lights up throughout the entire cave. But, the pokemon in this cave need the dark. These lights are upsetting them and making them confused." Seymore stated deeply saddened.

The group looked around at their surroundings, taking it all in. Seymore was leading them down a wide natural corrider that led them through the cave. Hung up all along the rocky walls and ceiling were long ropy wires. About every ten feet or so, the wire supported a light bulb.

"That explains why the zubat attacked, they were disoriented from the light. Realizing this they must have left the cave and you just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time." Ash explained.

Seymore sweatdropped, "Yeah that makes a lot of sense."

The group continued to walk throughout the cave when they came across a sick looking pokemon. It was sprawled out on its back, and seemed to be having trouble breathing.

Alex looked over to Seymore, "What's wrong with it?"

"It's the lights they're drying this sandshrew up, and look over there at that Paras."

The group brought their gaze to the other side of the cave where they noticed a strange crab-like bug pokemon trying to do something with the mushroom on its back.

"It's trying to plant its mushroom but it is no use, the lights in this cave are ruining everything." Seymore scoffed.

At this point Ash was practically fuming. _Who would do this? This is absolutely unacceptable, these pokemon are practically being tortured. _

"That's why I'm here, I have taken it upon myself to protect the mountain from the trouble makers that attack these caves." Continued Seymore.

Leaf scratched the back of her head not quite understanding the situation in full, "But, I don't understand…troublemakers. Why attack a cave?"

The scientist turned around sporting a somber look. "I'm afraid it's because of the moon stone."

"The moon stone!" exclaimed Alex.

"The moon stone is an awesome boulder a million years old, or even older. Deep in these caves the meteor hides. Though no explorer has ever seen the legendary rock from space we have studied its fragments and discovered that they increase a pokemons power. I fear that the people that strung up these lights have come to find and take the moon stone." Ranted Seymore.

"So you believe that the moon stone exists?" Asked Ash obviously interested in Seymore's knowledge.

Seymore looked hurt by Ash's skeptics. "Ever since I was a kid I have believed that pokemon actually come from outerspace."

Ash and Leaf restrained themselves from laughter, but that didn't stop Alex who was practically doubled over on the ground. "From outer space, pshhh that's a good one Seymore!" laughed Alex, he was practically in tears.

Seymore's face was getting redder and redder with every second that went by. "The space craft that they used was the moon stone, it's not a joke I'm sure of it!"

Leaf tried to dissolve the tension with a comment of her own. "Well it certainly is an original theory."

"If by original you mean crazy than yeah you're right." Alex said.

Seymore was astonished, "But, don't you see the moon stone belongs to the pokemon!"

"I'm sure that the moon stone probably does belong to the pokemon," said Alex "I just think that it is a little bit crazy for you to think that pokemon actually came to this earth from inside of it."

Seymore tried to ignore Alex's comment by giving his attention to Ash. "You believe me don't you Pikachu boy."

Pikachu giggled at the nickname that his friend was just given.

Ash sighed, "First things first my name is Ash, not Pikachu boy. As for your theory it may be a little bit farfetch'd , but who are we to tell you you're wrong."

Seymore was about to reply when he heard a peculiar sound coming from behind him. Ash's facial expression contorted the moment he laid eyes on the pokemon. "clefairy, clefairy, clefairy" skipping down the cave corridor was a small impish looking pokemon, it was a light shaded pink in color and had large black pointy ears. The mysterious creature that continued to chant Clefairy also had a small pair of wings on its back that help it float longer in the air.

Ash frantically pulled out his pokedex', "**Clefairy-The fairy pokemon-Its magical and cute appeal has many admirers. It is rare and found only in certain areas."**

"It's so cute," squealed Leaf.

"Don't even think about it Leaf, this one's mine!" bellowed Ash, in attempt to get a jump on the clefairy. Ash reached for Dratini's pokeball, but as he tried to throw it he felt someone grab his arm. The raven haired boy watched the clefairy skip away, as Seymore held his arm in place. _What the hell is he thinking!_

"Sorry Ash, I know clefairy are rare but its best you let it stay here. I hope you understand." Explained Seymore.

Ash sighed, _I really wanted that Clefairy, but Seymore has been protecting this mountain for a long time. I probably shouldn't do anything to upset him. _"Sure Seymore, I understand."

"Clefairy!"

The trio along with Seymore heard what sounded like a clefairy crying for help. They immediately ran in the direction that they last saw clefairy going, in hopes of being able to help the frightened creature.

The passageway that they were sprinting through opened up into a large cavern. In the cavern they saw clefairy cowering over in the corner, while a meowth was harassing her. "Don't be scared of Meowth."

Ash, Alex, and Leaf face palmed the moment the Meowth opened its mouth to speak.

_That's the talking Meowth from team rocket! Those morons must be here…_Ash gritted his teeth, "Leave the clefairy alone Meowth!"

"Ahhhh! The boy wit da strong Pikachu, what are you doing here?!" Asked Meowth.

"Looking for idiots like you!" retorted Ash

Meanwhile, Pikachu was currently helping the clefairy get up from the ground and leading it away from Meowth.

"So team rocket is causing all of the problems here!" yelled Leaf.

At that moment Jesse and James walked into the room and started things off by doing their retarded motto. (A/N: I will not do the motto again. Just reference it…)

"They sure are show offs." Sighed Leaf complaining over the sight of Jesse and James.

"Don't you guys ever get sick of saying the same thing over and over again!" Ash yelled out tauntingly.

"Shut the hell up twerp, our motto just goes way over your head." Argued Jesse.

It was James's turn to speak, "Yeah you're simply to young and stupid to understand what greatness is."

"Greatness! Hah the only thing you guys are great at is being losers!" Alex blurted back.

"Oh, excuse me who are you?!" asked Jesse (actually curious)

James squinted his eyes as he looked Alex over, "Yeah, I don't recognize you either."

Alex sweatdropped, _Oh yeah that's right technically they don't know Leaf and I. _

"What are you guys doing here!?" Ash shouted coldly.

Jesse smirked, "Were here for the moon stone, the boss is interested in its power."

_Just as I thought they want the moon stone. _Ash turned to the rest of the group, "Leaf, get out of here with Seymore and Clefairy. Alex we'll take these guys."

Leaf agreed with Ash and led Seymore and Clefairy out of the cavern.

Alex had no problem sticking with Ash, having full confidence that they were more than enough for the three rocket clowns to handle.

"Come back here with that Clefairy!" bellowed Jesse. Ash clenched his fist in annoyance, "If you want to get the clefairy you're going to have to go through us!" Ash retorted back.

"Yeah, and let's just say the chances of that happening are very slim," said Alex.

"Jesse, I think it's time for us to teach these stupid kids a little lesson!" James unclipped a pokeball from his belt, and released his koffing.

Jesse unclipped a pokeball from her belt as well, "I couldn't agree more!" appearing from its red and white sphere was Jesse's snake pokemon ekans.

Ash flipped his cap backwards while feeling the adrenaline coursing through his body. _Maybe they'll be a little more of a challenge this time around. _He then reached for one of his pokeballs, "If a fight is what you want, than it's a fight you're going to get! Dratini you're up!"

"Tini!" Emerging from her red and white sphere was Ash's beautiful dragon-type. One of the pre-evolutions of the pseudo legendary Dragonite.

The trip to Mt. Moon had given Ash plenty of time to train his pokemon. He worked with all of them, but focused primarily on his dragon-type. He wanted to get Dratini in battling shape so that she could take part in his next gym battle.

Ash, reflected upon the last week of training with Dratini recalling all of the experience she had gotten battling weaker trainers. She was now partaking in Ash's full training schedule. The majestic youth was getting better every day, and was more than ready for this battle.

"Is that a dratini!?" Asked James, clearly taken back by Ash's choice.

"James this might be our lucky day! If we can bring the boss a dratini and the moonstone we could get a promotion!" exclaimed Jesse.

Meowth's eyes were practically bulging out of their sockets, "Don't forget dat Pikachu either! We may as well go for the gold!"

Ash continued to clench his fist in anger as team rocket muttered amongst themselves. "If you think I'll let you guys get your slimy hands on Dratini, you're even bigger idiots than I thought!"

As Ash finished his rant Alex unclipped a pokeball from his belt, "nidoran I choose you!" materializing from a flash of brilliant red light was Alex's starter.

Nidoran was a small purple rabbit-like pokemon with a sharp spiky hide. It had a medium sized horn protruding from its forehead, and you could tell it was a poison type from the acid like liquid that was being slowly secreted from the horn.

Ash turned to Alex, "You ready for our first double-battle!"

"I was born ready playa!" exclaimed Alex

Ash internally sweat dropped, _What the hell did he just call me. _"Dratini, use leer on koffing and ekans!"

Dratini's eyes flashed red as she looked into the souls of both Koffing and Ekans. The two Team Rocket owned pokemon felt there defense's drop as Dratini's leering eyes caused them to slightly panic.

"Nidoran use double kick on koffing!" Alex bellowed trying to take advantage of Dratini's leer.

The small poison-type scurried across the battle field at a semi-fast pace. He leaped into the air gathering momentum for a strong attack. Koffing cried out in pain as it felt Nidoran's feet plunge into its body.

"Ash take care of the Ekans! I can handle this floating ball of poison!" Encouraged Alex.

Ash gave Alex a grunt of affirmation as he checked back into the battle.

"Use poison sting on Dratini!" Ekans shook off the leer attack after hearing Jesses's order and tried to spray the dragon-type with a barrage of poison tipped needles.

"Dratini, I think that attack belongs to Ekans, send it back with twister." Replied Ash calmly.

"Tini!" Dratini, conjured up a vicious tornado that swept up Ekans' poison sting and crashed into the snake pokemon, causing it to yelp out in pain.

Unnoticed by the two boys at this moment Meowth slyly sneaked off in chase of the clefairy.

"Nidoran keep it up, focus energy and finish it off with furry attack!"

Nidoran focused his power as he repetitively thrashed Koffing with its horn.

James watched the battle in horror as Koffing continued to get beat up. "Try to get out of their and use smog!"

Koffing gained some separation from nidoran and floated to its blind spot. It than released a poison based cloud of smoke at nidoran in hope of possibly poisoning it.

"Nidoran barrel through the smoke and use double kick!" The small purple rabbit like pokemon plunged through the smog and landed a fierce counterattack on its opponent. Koffing was sent flying into James causing a grunt in pain from both pokemon and master.

After realizing that James was taken care of Alex brought his gaze over to Ash who was just finishing up his battle with Jesse.

"Dratini, finish it off with dragon rage!" Dratini opened its mouth and released a powerful blast of purplish fire. It was like a set of exploding dominos, ekans was sent flying into Jesse, who knocked into James, eventually landing them on Koffing who blew up and launched them somewhere into the never ending depths of the caves.

"I believe we handled that well," sighed Alex.

Ash scratched the back of his head sheepishly, "Yeah that was pretty easy, but for some reason I feel like we are forgetting something."

Alex sweat dropped, "Crap."

"What is it?"

Alex looked pale, "Dude…..where's that talking Meowth."

Ash's eyes just about popped out of his head at the thought. "We better find the others."

* * *

Ash and Alex continued down the long cave corridor's that resided through the base of Mt. Moon in search of Leaf, Seymore, and Clefairy.

When they reached the end they found themselves in the upper parts of the mountains. Outside of the cave they gasped as the scenery changed guiding them into an average sized mountain forest with a small lake.

They arrived at the lake and were shocked to find Leaf using her bulbasaur to send Meowth flying off into the distance.

After filling each other in on what happened, Ash and Alex found out that Meowth had followed them into this clearing to take clefairy.

The group decided to take a break at the lake to rest and eat lunch. Ash, Alex, Leaf and Seymore were currently enjoying some of the sandwiches that they had brought with them from Pewter. Their pokemon were stretched out on the grass eating their pokemon food as well.

After about an hour of rest Ash noticed that clefairy was off to the side talking with his pokemon. _Sometimes I wish I could speak their language. How cool would it be to know what they are talking about._

* * *

**(Poke Speech Begins) **"Ex-cuse m-e, can I ask you guys a q-q-question?" Clefairy spoke shyly in direction of the four pokemon.

"Of course you can deer what is it?" answered Ash's Pidgeotto in a gentle tone trying not to frighten the young pokemon. (A/N: Pidgey's evolution will be explained in a flash back next chapter)

"Why do you strong looking pokemon let that human tell you what to do?" Asked Clefairy innocently. She had rarely seen humans before and was extremely curious to find out what they were doing with one.

Charmeleon was currently leaned up against a tree sharpening his claws. "That's simple, he's or trainer." Answered the fire lizard in a sarcastic tone.

"What's a trainer?" Asked the clefairy with cute wide eyes.

Charmeleon sighed, "A pokemon trainer travels around the world, and captures pokemon. They then train us to make us stronger and use us in battles."

Clefairy looked horrified, "That sounds terrible, I'm sorry that happened to you guys."

Pikachu gave Charmeleon a harsh look, the fire lizard noticed and simply looked the other way. "Don't listen to him kid, having a trainer is a lot of fun."

Clefairy had a puzzled look on her face, "I don't understand how could getting captured be fun."

It was Dratini's turn to answer, "You're looking at it the wrong way, Daddy is the greatest."

Clefairy simply looked at Dratini curiously, "Who's you're daddy?"

Dratini gestured her head in Ash's direction while cooing affectionately, "That's daddy he's our trainer."

Clefairy giggled, "But, that's a human he can't be your daddy."

It was Dratini's turn to look confused. "No, you're wrong that's my daddy. "

Pikachu decided that now was a good time to intervene in the conversation, "You see Dratini has been with our trainer ever since she was an egg."

Clefairy understood now why Dratini called their trainer daddy but was still skeptical about why they would like having a trainer. "I still don't get it why would you guys like having a trainer?"

Ash's pokemon all understood that one of them was going to have to explain Ash to the little clefairy. Pikachu, Dratini, and Pidgeotto all looked at Charmeleon at the same time.

Charmeleon scoffed, "What are you guys looking at me like that for?"

Pikachu laughed, "You nervous lizard?"

Charmeleon grunted in annoyance, "Shut your trap rodent!"

Pidgeotto sighed, "Well you have known Ash the longest charmeleon, why do you like having him as a trainer?"

Charmeleon was starting to feel flustered as he retorted back, "You joined us the first day you could easily answer this question!"

Pidgeotto chirped with laughter, "It's you're duty as Ash's starter to represent him."

Charmeleon snorted out a cloud of smoke as he gave into the peer pressure, "Fine, fine I'll explain."

Clefairy brightened up a little bit, "Thank you, mister Charmeleon."

Charmeleon blushed at the praise as he got ready to advertise his best friend, "Ok little one how do I put this…..Ash is a G"

All of Ash's other pokemon fell over in embarrassment after listening to what Charmeleon had to say.

Charmeleon laughed, "I'm only kidding. Hmmmm.. what's fun about having a trainer you ask? To be completely honest with you, I don't really know how to answer that question. I've only had one trainer so I'm not an expert on the topic. But, I could tell you what is fun about having Ash as your trainer."

"Well I guess that would help" muttered Clefairy.

"Ok, sounds good I'm going to make this as brief as possible. I guess what makes it fun having Ash as a trainer is that he sees you as a friend and not as a tool. He treats every single one of us with respect and always has our best interests at heart. He trains us hard and knows how to get results. He'll be whatever you need him to be, for Pidgeotto and I he's like an older brother, for Dratini he plays the role of dad, and he is Pikachu's best friend. Ash is the best thing that has ever happened to us that is what makes it fun to have him as a trainer."

Clefairy was flabbergasted by the kind words that Charmeleon was speaking in regards to this human. Charmeleon's description of Ash was exactly what she always wanted, someone that cared about her, and helped her to better herself.

Pikachu started to chuckle, "Damn lizard, who would have thought you had a sensitive side."

Charmeleon grimaced. "I swear to Arceus Pikachu, if you don't shut your mouth I'm going to put you in your place."

Pikachu sighed, "Oh really now, I'd like to see you try."

"Boys will be boys," Sighed pidgeotto as she brought her attention to the tiny clefairy "I sense indecision within you little one."

Clefairy stumbled out of thought at the voice of Pidgeotto, "Do you think that Ash would accept me as his pokemon?"

Pidgeotto saw this coming and cooed, "Of course young one, for now just hang around and get to know him. If you ask before we leave I'm sure he would love to take you with us."

Clefairy smiled at the thought of traveling the world and getting stronger. She always did consider herself a little more adventurous than the others of her kind. (**Pokespeech Ends**)

Clefairy's thought was interrupted when Ash walked over to the group of lounging pokemon. "Hey guys are you enjoying the rest?"

All of Ash's pokemon cheered in acknowledgement of their trainer. The raven haired boy smiled at this, "I'm glad you guys like it."

While spending a little bit of time with his pokemon and Clefairy who in Ash's opinion was incredibly fond of him, Ash decided to bring up something that he hadn't thought of until now.

"Guys since we're a family now I think it would be appropriate for all of you to have names." Explained Ash.

The pokemon glanced at each other oddly, curious to find out what their trainer had planned.

"I just think that a name is special, and that you guys all deserve one." stated Ash trying to persuade his pokemon.

It didn't take long for all of Ash's pokemon to agree and after about an hour of Ash reciting random names and his pokemon nodding yes or no they came to a conclusion.

Charmeleon was to be named Drogo, Pidgeotto was now Skylar, Dratini liked the name Aria, and Pikachu who was the toughest to satisfy was now simply known as Kai.

The pokemon all celebrated, having a name felt great. During the midst of the celebration Clefairy waltzed over to Ash and gave him a look that said it all. Ash sighed, "Do you want a name too?"

Clefairy cooed in response.

"hmm…. Let's see how about…..Luna?" Asked Ash.

Ash assumed that she must have loved the name, because she jumped up and down repeating clefairy with glee.

When Luna finished her adorable display of happiness, she proceeded to skip away waving Ash to follow her.

Ash returned all of his pokemon besides Kai, before getting Leaf, Alex and Seymore. The group followed Luna into another cave. Which led them into a large dome shaped cavern that opened up to the sky, in the center lied a momentous glistening stone. You could see small fragments sparkle in the air as they floated among the gentle breeze.

The group gasped in marvel. Seymore was the only one able to formulate a sentence, "I can't believe it, that's the moon stone."

"The best part about the mystery, is when the mystery is solved." Said Leaf, as she continued to gape at the phenomenon.

Ash couldn't help but smile, "So it seems the legend of the moon stone is true."

"What's Clefairy doing?" Asked Alex.

The group of four watched Luna as she placed her fragment next to the moon stone. The moon stone started to glow a vibrant blue, and multiple clefairy entered the cavern from different directions.

The group stared out in awe as the clefairy danced around the moon stone all the while chanting their name.

"What are they doing?" asked Leaf.

"It must be some kind of ritual, I think they are praying to the moon stone!?" replied Seymore.

Ash smirked, "I think you're right Seymore, but it goes even further than that."

Seymore raised his eyes in curiosity, "What do you mean Ash?"

The scientist's question answered itself, as he and the pallet town trio witnessed Luna as well as some of the other clefairy begin to glow and change shape.

Ash whipped out his podedex to analyze the new pokemon, "**Clefable- the fairy pokemon-It is very wary and rarely shows itself to people. Its ears can hear a pin drop over half a mile away."**

The group continued to watch the scene for the rest of the night enjoying every moment of it. Ash knew going into this journey that he would probably get to see some amazing things. But, this was something he would never forget. _This is why I went on this journey._

* * *

The pallet town trio now found themselves on the other side of the mountain saying their farewells to Seymore the scientist.

"Before you guys leave I have something for you." Said Seymore, grabbing the attention of the three children.

"What is it Seymore?" asked Ash in curiosity.

Seymore reached into his lab coat and pulled out three small slabs of rock before handing one to each of the young trainers.

"Each one of those is a different pokemon fossil, whenever you go to Cinnabar island stop by the museum and get those restored, you might just end up with a new pokemon."

The three trainers couldn't help but smile at what they held in their hands. They thanked the scientist and gave him a final farewell as they were ready to set off towards Cerulean City.

Before leaving a familiar Clefable appeared out of nowhere and confronted Ash, "What is it Luna?"

"fable, clefa!" muttered the fairy pokemon as she pointed at Ash's belt.

"Do you want to come with me?" Asked Ash trying to decipher what she was saying.

Ash's question was answered when Luna smacked the button to one of Ash's empty pokeballs and was immediately sucked in.

The group was speechless as the pokeball rattled once on Ash's belt before coming to a stop.

Ash gave his Pikachu a strange look before opening up his mouth to speak, "Well it looks like we have new teammate, don't we Kai."

**To Be Continued...**

* * *

**Ash's Pokemon**

**Drogo (Charmeleon): Level 21**

**Skylar (Pidgeotto): Level 20**

**Kai (Pikachu): Level 22**

**Aria (Dratini): Level 14**

**Luna (Clefable): Level 16**

* * *

**Sorry for the long wait guys, I promise I won't leave you hanging like that for a while.  
**

**As for the fossils. I didn't say in the chapter because I wanted to leave it a surprise for the characters but after counting all of your votes on the reviews, Ash will have Cranidos, Alex will get Kabuto, and Leaf will get Omanyte. I plan on having Ash capture a kabuto in the orange islands because it was a close second so don't worry.  
**

**Next chapter will be a gym battle with Misty, and don't forget to answer the question about Kai in the reviews. **

**Until next time.**


	6. Cerulean City: The sensational sisters!

**A/N:**

**Back into the writing routine and I have to say it feels great. I have a really good idea of where I want to go with the story now so hopefully it will start to move along much faster. The questions about Kai are still floating around the reviews so feel free to continue to voice your opinion about our favorite electric mouse. **

**Review Responses:**

**SSJ 3 Kyuubi Gohan: I honestly didn't feel like it was necessary in my story. I'm going eliminate a lot of the scenes that team rocket is in, it just gets old to have to write about them all the time.**

**Lightningblade49: I appreciate your continuous imput throughout my story, for that I say thanks. As for your comments about Pidgeotto being the peacemaker that was exactly what I was going for. To many times in these pokemon rewrites people forget to develop the pokemon which I think is stupid. Oh and in response to dealing with Team Rocket as much as I hate writing them I have roles for them to play later on in the story so I don't feel like cutting them off right now.**

**Uranium25: Ash will eventually have the ability to understand pokemon, that much is certain. As for sooner rather than later I can't guarantee that. I plan on their being some hints towards Ash's ability to use Aura during his travels in this region, but he won't start to explore it until he reaches Jhoto.**

**Gen. Jok3r: You bring up some very good points that I would like to address. Ash will have tough times, this isn't going to be one of those Ash is god types of fics. If he wants to be the best he's going to have to train like it and there will be plenty of obstacles along the way. As for your point about catching pokemon native to a region, I couldn't agree more. Ash will not be finding random gible's in Kanto its stupid. The cranidos fossil was something I did simply because who knows what region prehistoric pokemon chilled in. The only pokemon from another region during Ash's travels in Kanto that I am even considering is Riolu. I can't promise you anything on the legendaries, but the story most definitely won't revolve around them.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon word.**

* * *

The spearow and pidgey could be heard chirping amongst the trees, as the pallet town trio neared Cerulean City. Alex raised his arms above his head as he yawned, "It's a great day to just enjoy the sunshine."

"You got that right the weathers perfect," said Leaf as she felt the soothing gentle breeze frolic across her skin.

Alex looked over Ash's shoulder trying to catch a glimpse of the map that the raven haired trainer was currently examining. "Are we getting close?"

"Yeah it shouldn't be too much longer, we should reach Cerulean in just under an hour." Replied Ash as he put away his map of the Kanto region.

In Ash's opinion the 3-day trip from Mt. Moon to Cerulean City couldn't have gone any better. He was able to train his pokemon every day, and the results were notable. The aspiring pokemon master was able to teach Drogo scary face, as well as work on raising all of his base stats. Kai and Skylar were put through three days of rigorous fundamentals in attempt to gain applicable experience.

When it came down to Aria and Luna's training Ash determined it best to train them separate from the rest of the group. The reason behind this was the simple fact that they were not quite on par with the others. After finding out that the two female pokemon were at similar levels he pronounced them temporary training partners.

As expected Aria was improving dramatically and was starting to show glimpses that foreshadowed a bright future. Ash was beginning to speculate that Aria's birth parents must have been something special, because she was a natural. The dragoness was showing Ash clear-cut signs of a potential that was both enigmatic and bottomless. It was his job to bring this mysterious potential out in order to achieve his goal for her. Which was to train her into the greatest Dragonite that had ever lived. Ash knew that the task might be crazy, but in his mind he didn't have a choice. Aria was very special to Ash, and he wanted nothing but the very best for her.

The surprise came from Luna, who was beginning to catch on quickly. The first day was rough as she got accustomed to Ash's busy training schedule. But, by the third day she was able to do everything at the same pace as the rest of the pokemon. The raven haired trainer couldn't help but be mildly inspired. All of the research that he had done on her species had led him to believe that Luna was going to be a steadfast pacifist. But, he quickly learned not to judge a book by its cover because his clefable had the determination and aggression of a seasoned warrior. And Ash was bent on teaching Luna how to apply that determination and aggression into a coordinated battle

"Hey guys look over there!" bellowed Leaf as she caught the first glimpse of the famous Cerulean City and all of its glory.

"Pika pi!" cheered Kai as he too saw the beautiful city.

Alex smirked, "You guys feeling badge number two right about now?"

The boy with the Pikachu on his shoulder simply stared out at the capacious city with a piercing pair of driven eyes. '_Cerulean City, home to the cascade badge.'_

* * *

"So this is Cerulean City?" muttered Ash to no one in particular, as he and his friends tried to find their way to the pokemon center. The raven haired trainer had heard stories about how gorgeous Cerulean was, but this was overkill.

The city itself seemed to give off an absolute aura of tranquility that could not be ignored. He could see where the city got its name from, as the group walked by numerous indigenous azure ponds that were scattered throughout the city.

The buildings looked like they were built by Arceus himself, everything just seemed to fit together perfectly. But, what made Cerulean so enjoyable wasn't its appearance, but rather the soothing sound of flowing water coming from the northern sea.

"Pretty nice place isn't it," said Alex as he took in the scenery. "Too bad were not here for a vacation."

Leaf sighed, "Well, I don't see what's wrong with enjoying ourselves a little bit."

Ash was slowly beginning to trail the group as he thought about their reason for being here. _'The Cerulean City gym leader uses water pokemon, therefore Kai would be the most logical choice. But, that wouldn't be fair to my other pokemon. Drogo and Kai have already participated in their first gym battle. I promised Aria that she could battle, so that leaves me with Luna or Skylar….'_

The raven haired trainers thought was interrupted by the blustering sound of sirens. He looked up to find a building with a sign labeled 'machine shop' surrounded by police, as well as multiple random bystanders.

"I wonder what's going on?" asked Leaf as the trio approached the scene.

Ash turned his attention to one of the citizen onlookers in order to gather some information, "Excuse me sir, but do you know what happened here?"

"Some burglars broke into that store last night," answered the stranger bleakly.

"Hmmm…burglars," said Ash to himself as he continued to observe the crime scene.

Ash's examination of the scene came to an end when he heeded the sound of a familiar voice, "What do you know about burglars?"

The aspiring pokemon master pivoted only to find Officer Jenny scowling at him intently. "You three look very suspicious to me," stated Officer Jenny as she looked the three travel companions over carefully.

Ash sweat dropped, "Aren't you that motorcycle officer from Viridian City...the one that drives like a lunatic."

The female officers face instantly burnished, "You must be talking about my sister-in-law stationed in Viridian!" Her giddy expression didn't last long as her facial features contorted back to a look of austerity, "If you know my sister-in-law than that must mean that you had some dealings with the police."

Ash gulped, "We-ll you see.."

Jenny interrupted, "Now maybe you just stopped her to ask for directions, or maybe you were turning in somebody's lost wallet."

The raven haired boy sighed, "Actu-"

"Or maybe you're a burglar that broke out of jail!" Jenny pulled out a pair of handcuffs and raised them above her head. She then proceeded to partake in a series of strange poses that Ash assumed to be rehearsed.

The raven haired boy frantically waved his arms back in fourth as he tried to explain himself to the overly intense female officer. "No mam! You've got it all wrong I've never even been to jail!"

"Yeah, yeah that's what they all say," said Jenny as she began to twirl the hand-cuffs around in circles using her right index finger.

Leaf decided that now was probably a good time to intervene in the conversation, "Honestly, Officer Jenny this is one giant misunderstanding. We just saw the crowd and decided to walk over to find out what was going on."

Jenny showed no signs of softening up. Her pupils burned like that of an inferno as she gazed into Leafs innocent eyes, before saying, "In case you didn't know little girl the criminal always returns to the scene of the crime."

Ash scratched the back of his head, as he pulled out his pokedex' in irritation. "Maybe this will clear things up," stated the raven haired boy as he turned on his pokedex' and showed her his identification. Alex and Leaf did the same.

Jenny sweat dropped in embarrassment, "Well that's more than enough evidence for me…..sorry for being suspicious."

The pallet town trio accepted her apology before Ash asked her one final question, "What exactly did these burglars steal?"

Officer Jenny scratched her chin in what Ash understood to be confusion, "You see, that's the strange thing about it they didn't take any money, just a massive vacuum and a giant hose."

"But what would anyone want that stuff for?" asked a flagrantly curious Alex.

Officer Jenny folded her arms before answering, "I'm sure I don't know young man, but I do know that I don't have time to play guessing games with you. I've got a job to do and it's time for you three to move along."

* * *

"Damn… I really thought we were screwed that time," mumbled Alex before taking a bite out of a greasy hamburger.

"Good thing Ash showed her his pokedex otherwise we might be spending the night in prison!" exclaimed a thankful Leaf as she scarfed down a plate full of french-fries.

"Yeah Ash, wait to think on your toes back there," said Alex while trying to get the raven haired trainers attention.

Ash was in his own little world, giving zero regard to his surroundings as he reflected upon the previous events with an invisible lens of curiosity. _That sure was strange….. A massive vacuum and a giant hose, but why would anyone steal that? And more importantly who?...Crap! crap! I can't let things like this distract me. I've got a gym battle to prepare for!"_

The aspiring pokemon master stood up from the cafeteria booth abruptly, completely forgetting that there was anyone else at the table.

"What's the big idea dog, you barely ate any of your food!" exclaimed a surprised Alex as he watched Ash hastily exit the pokemon center's cafeteria without saying a word. "Can you believe that guy, what do you thinks got him so worked up?"

Leaf shrugged, "Who knows? If there is one thing I've learned about Ash it is that he can always surprise you."

Alex scratched the back of his head, "Ever wonder if we made the right choice in traveling with him?"

"As of right now I couldn't be any happier with how our journey has begun. So, I would say we made the right choice...Why?" responded Leaf after taking a few seconds to formulate a proper answer.

Alex rubbed his stomach after finishing his burger, "No reason, I guess the thought just popped into my head."

"um…ok," _He sure does freak me out sometimes.. _"Well do you think we should go look for him?" asked Leaf

Alex gave Leaf a dopey grin before answering her question, "Naaaaaahhh I'm sure he's fine, but I could go for a nap before we take on the gym leader."

* * *

"Come on out guys!" exclaimed Ash, as he released his team from their pokeball's. Looming from a flash of radiant red light was Aria, Skylar, Drogo, and Luna. The four allies announced their arrival with various authoritative shouts.

"Meleon!"

"Jot!"

"Tini!"

"Clefa!"

The raven haired trainer made sure beforehand that no one else was behind the pokemon center. The last thing he wanted was for some kid to stumble across his pokemon and spread rumors across the Kanto region covering what species he owned.

Ash decided to let his pokemon interact before he addressed them. Over the course of the last couple of weeks he had picked up on the importance of letting his pokemon mingle. Ash figured that he would go insane if he didn't have people of his own species to talk to on a regular basis. So why should things be different for pokemon?

Shortly after their release Kai leaped to the ground from Ash's shoulder and joined his fellow pokemon comrades.

**(Pokespeech begins) **"Yo rodent! You better not screw up today," admonished Drogo, as he crossed his arms and leaned up against the side of the pokemon center, "You know I won't."

Kai scoffed incredulously before retaliating, "Hah you wish Dumbass, todays battle involves water!"

Drogo rolled his eyes in annoyance, "Please, like a little bit of water is going to stop me!"

"Shut up! You two are always arguing like little hatchlings. Why not set a good example for once?! Before the unthinkable happens and your doltishness rubs off on Aria and Luna," Lectured the fiery Skylar.

"Yes Mam!" saluted Drogo and Kai, in attempt to becalm the infuriated flying-type.

Aria picked her head up innocently, responding to the sound of her name, "Huh, what's up Auntie Skylar?"

Ash's Pidgeotto fluttered over to Aria's side before answering her, "Nothing sweetheart just trying to prove a point to uncle Kai and uncle Drogo."

"What point?" Asked Luna in a tone similar to that of Aria's

"That they should quit bickering like idiots before I knock them both out," replied Skylar as she glared at the two troublemakers menacingly.

"She's terrifying," whispered Drogo in the direction of Kai.

"You could say that again," replied the flustered electric-type. **(Pokespeech ends)**

Their conversation ended with an interruption from their trainer, "Excuse me guys, but I have something I want to talk to you about."

Ash waited until he had all of their attention before continuing, "It's about today's gym battle, after thinking things over I've decided that I'll be using Skylar and Aria."

**(Pokespeech)**

Kai: "You've got to be freaking kidding me!"

Drogo: "Damnit!"

Luna: "Awwwww…."

Skylar: "Hell Yeah!"

Aria: "Yay, I won't let you down Daddy!"

**(Pokespeech ends)**

* * *

After getting directions from a random stranger, Ash and Kai found themselves out front of the Cerulean gym. The building was a little bit larger than Brock's gym back in Pewter, but held the same core dome shaped structure. The differences were in design, obviously. Ash couldn't help but be slightly turned off though by the outlandish exterior. The building was striped from top to bottom, alternating the vibrant colors hot pink and gold. But, what made the building 'extremely' unusual was the massive steel plated cut-out of a dewgong that sat just above the front door.

Although the gym's appearance was bizarre, Ash still felt the same combination of excitement and apprehension that he experienced before walking inside of the Pewter gym. The only difference was that this time he wasn't sharing the moment with Alex and Leaf. The raven haired boy had decided back at the pokemon center that it would be much easier if he just headed to the gym without them. That way they wouldn't have to wait for the gym leader to get their pokemon healed twice. He understood that there was a good chance his friends would be upset that he left them behind, but Ash didn't care, they would have to get over it.

Once Ash and Kai were finished taking in the tasteless outer appearance of the gym, they proceeded to let themselves in.

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN PLEASE WELCOME THE STARS OF OUR SHOW THE SENSATIONAL CERULEAN CITY SINCHRONIZED SWIMMING SISTERS!" roared a male voice over an exceedingly boisterous intercom.

Ash and Kai jumped back in surprise, apparently not expecting to walk into a walloping crowd of people seated stadium style around an Olympic sized pool. "What the hell is going on, I thought this was a gym," mumbled Ash to no one in particular as he turned his gaze to the focal point of the show.

At the far end of the pool, about forty feet above ground level on a high dive, stood three of the most beautiful girls Ash had ever seen. With a spotlight pointed directly at them, it was easy to make out the entirety of their angelic features. Ash guessed that they were probably only a couple years older than him. All three were even in height, and when it came to their body shape let's just say Arceus must have spent a little extra time at the drawing board. Their flawless facial characteristics were similar yet unique to each other, as you would expect from sisters that are close in age. In Ash's opinion the blonde on the left was 'slightly' prettier than her blunette and pink haired sisters that stood to her right. But, then again that was just his opinion. He assumed that it was probably a hot topic of debate for every boy under the age of fifteen within city limits.

As our hero gawked at them, the three goddess-like sisters waved to the crowd blissfully getting a ruckus reaction that could rival a battle at the indigo plateau in crowd noise.

Once the people quieted down the girls got their show under way with a daring leap. With perfect symmetry they elegantly plummeted towards the water, all the while partaking in numerous flips and spins. The routine ended with a silent splash, causing the crowd to erupt like a volcano. Ash had to admit, it was entertaining. But, despite the fact that he enjoyed the enthralling display of beauty and athleticism he had to wonder, 'was he at the right place?'

* * *

"I just don't understand this is supposed to be a gym," complained Ash to his Pikachu as he made his way down a short winding staircase in search of an employee.

Kai merely sighed, not really paying his trainer any attention. He was still upset that he wasn't going to get to fry any good for nothing water-types.

"Huh!?" exclaimed the raven haired boy as he reached the base of the stairs which unraveled into a long corridor walled with glass. Behind the transparent paneling existed gallons upon gallons of water, actualizing one of the most impressive aquariums Ash had ever laid eyes on.

Amongst the artificial aqua based habitat swam what Ash estimated to be thousands of various fish. The aspiring pokemon master was absolutely fixated, he just couldn't take his eyes off of the diverse environment in which these lesser beings interacted. (A/N: And when I say fish, I mean fish. If you go back and watch the episode there are actually fish in the aquarium, 'not pokemon')

"I have no idea what to think anymore Kai," said Ash as he pressed both his hands against the glass, "How could this be a pokemon gym?"

The moment the young trainer finished his sentence he heard the sound of a feminine voice, "That was totally awesome!"

"I know that was so great," replied another voice just as dainty.

"Daisy the dive you did was super!" acknowledged the first voice giddily.

This time a third voice that was slightly more laid back answered, "All that practice really paid off."

"Totally!" exclaimed the second voice.

In reaction to the last comment the three effeminate voices discharged a collection of rambunctious laughter. Ash wasn't quite sure what was funny about their conversation, but he figured that he might as well check out what was going on.

After following the giggles to their source he found himself face to face with the three enchanting teens from the show.

"Excuse me," said Ash with conviction. Our hero figured that if he was going to ask anyone about the gym it might as well be the three beauties.

"I'm sorry but if you want an interview you have to 'like' talk to our manager," reciprocated the pink haired sister with a snarky tone to her voice.

"No it's not that," answered Ash.

"We don't do autographs," retorted the pinkette once again.

'_Bitch', _"I don't want one, I just want to know if this is a pokemon gym," said Ash in a pleasant tone hiding his true feelings.

This time the blunette answered and she was a little less snotty, "It sure is."

Ash bent back and let out a sigh of relief, "Well do you have any idea where I could find the gym leader?"

"You're looking at them," answered the pinkette indifferently.

"The three of us are the gym leaders here," said the blonde haired girl, speaking to Ash for the first time.

"Were the sensational sisters!" proclaimed the pink haired sister.

The blunette smirked before announcing, "And were world famous!"

Ash's jaw was practically touching the ground. "You've got to be kidding me! The three of you are the gym leaders!"

"Um yeah, what's so surprising about that?" asked the blonde intrusively.

Ash's cheeks turned a slight shade of pink as he scratched the back of his head sheepishly, "You girls are just really pretty for gym leaders that's all."

The blonde and blunette simply ignored the comment, but the pinkette's cheeks turned a rosy crimson as she looked Ash over. '_He's kind of cute, and could only be maybe two years younger than me_.'

Her reaction didn't go unnoticed by Ash, but the girl's attitude from earlier was enough to extinguish any interest he may have had prior to their meeting. At this point he just wanted a gym battle, "Well any way I challenge all of you!" vociferated Ash as he pointed at them with a taunting finger.

The three girls looked at each other and released a conjoint sigh, before the blonde answered, all the while raising her arms above her head in a way that clearly read disinterest. "Ummm… We don't feel much like battling anymore."

Ash and Kai sweat dropped, "What do you mean, you don't feel like battling anymore?"

"We just got destroyed by some kid from this nowhere place called Pallet town," answered the blunette.

"Yeah it was like totally embarrassing," retorted the blonde.

'_Well this sucks, Gary must have got here first' _thought Ash as he soaked in the horrible news. As he sorted out his jumbled emotions the boy noticed that the pink haired girl continued to stare at him, her cheeks ablaze. When he brought his eyes to hers she looked away, clearly trying not to get caught.

Ash simply ignored it, too disappointed in the results of their encounter to do anything about it. His thoughts were interrupted though by the sound of the blonde's alluring voice, "I know what you want."

Several thoughts collided in Ash's mind at an alarming pace as he reflected upon what she had just said. '_You, or a gym battle, that's all I'm really interested in right now.'_

"Seal!" yowled the blonde, as she clapped both of her hands together precipitously. Coming forth from a pool to their right that Ash somehow failed to notice beforehand was a strange white pokemon. It was somewhat small in stature and was clearly mammalian. The little guy lied on two furry flippers and its tail separated into what looked like two more. It had a small horn protruding from its forehead and two identical ivory white tusks that crept from its mouth.

The seal elongated its tongue, responding to the blondes command. Ash's brown eyes all but leaped out of their sockets, as he took notice of the small blue tear shaped trinket that sat idly on the pokemon's wet appendage. '_The cascade badge'_

The blonde haired beauty reached out and picked up the ornament, before holding it inches away from Ash's face. The young boy didn't know what was more appealing at the time the badge, or the girl.

"The cascade badge, this is what you want right?" asked the lovely blonde.

Ash stared at the badge intensely, picturing golden rays emulating from both the girl and the badge.

"Come on take it, seriously it's yours, all you got to do is reach out and grab it."

Ash felt like he was being bewitched, as his entire being wanted to just take the badge and be done with it. But, that wasn't his style. Ash Ketchum didn't take the easy way out, he was either going to earn the badge, or receive no badge at all.

"I'm sorry but I'd rather earn it myself," said the aspiring pokemon master.

"Come on take it, a badge is a badge," persuaded the blunette as she weaseled her way back into the conversation.

"I can't it would be against everything I stand for," retorted Ash with much more density to his voice this time.

"Oh we-" The blonde was cut-off by the bellowing sound of a young girl, "Hold it right there!"

"Who the hell are you!" blurted Ash, as a young girl that he estimated was about a year older than him, exploded onto the scene from who the hell knows where. She stood a little bit taller than Ash and had fiery red hair twisted up into a pony tail that sat effortlessly to the side. She wore a short yellow tank top that showed a little bit of her stomach, and a tight pair of jean shorts. The newcomer had two red strap suspenders connected to her jeans that looped symmetrically around both of her shoulders, as well as a pair of yellow sneakers.

Ash learned quickly that the girl had an outrageous temper, as she ignored him and immediately got in the blondes face. "If you don't want to battle him Daisy, then I will!"

The raven haired boy didn't give Daisy an opportunity to answer, "What is going on, who are you!?"

The girl raised a strong fist as she answered, "My name is Misty, and I am the fourth sensation sister!"

The pink haired sister butted into the conversation with another snarky remark, "Actually there are only three sensational sisters, and one runt."

The redhead, now known as Misty, growled back in anger obviously not a fan of the pink haired beauties remark.

"So little sister it's a surprise to see you back so soon," answered Daisy in a curious tone.

"That little girl with a big mouth that said she wouldn't come back until she was a great pokemon trainer, wasn't that you?" said the blunette, clearly mocking Misty.

Misty looked down at the ground somberly, "Uh.. I guess I did say something like that when I left."

Ash scratched the back of his head sheepishly, before bringing his attention to Kai. "These girls are crazy, but who knows maybe this new girl will give us the battle we want."

"Cha…." sighed Kai, who was still pissed off that he wouldn't be in the battle either way.

"Misty, you left here pretending you wanted to become a great pokemon trainer because you couldn't compare to us. Because we are obviously more talented and beautiful than you are," gloated the pink haired sister.

'_uh oh' _thought Ash to himself as he sensed an emotional outburst.

"That wasn't the reason!" shrieked Misty at the top of her lungs.

"Well than I guess you came back because you didn't make it as a pokemon trainer," chided Daisy as she shrugged both of her shoulders in disinterest.

"Actually I just happened be in town and came by to check on the gym, I've been hearing disturbing rumors that you three idiots have been giving out free badges!" countered Misty, "and it seems these rumors are true."

The redhead than proceeded to turn her menacing scowl in the direction of Ash, "And since it's obvious that you three are incapable of running this gym I will take on this challenger!"

Giving her a more detailed look over it became clear to Ash that the violent Misty was actually quite pretty. He would even say that if she tried harder she may end up being the most attractive of them all. Too bad he was going to have to decimate her, "Alright than Misty, my name is Ash Ketchum from Pallet town and I challenge you to a gym battle," spoke Ash calmly.

Misty smirked, "Nice to meet you Ash, I hope you know what you've gotten yourself into."

* * *

Meanwhile, Alex and Leaf were currently resting on one of the extremely comfortable couches in the Pokemon center lounge.

"Ash sure has been gone a long time," said Alex as he anxiously waited for his friend to return. He couldn't wait to take on the gym leader. All this sitting around was starting to get under his skin.

"I guarantee you that he is already there," replied an exasperated Leaf.

"Who am I kidding you're probably right, that prick doesn't think of anyone other than himself," retorted Alex.

Leaf gasped at Alex's smug remark, "Woah there cowboy, no reason to get mad at him, wherever he is I'm sure he has a good reason for being there."

"I'm not mad at him. I'm mad at myself for not coming up with the idea first," grumbled Alex as he crossed his arms and pouted, acting his age.

"You're impossible," replied Leaf somewhat annoyed.

"Oh shut up, you know you feel the same way," countered Alex.

"Screw you, no I don't!" Leaf snapped back.

Alex took a deep breath before continuing, "Whatever, let's go find the gym homie I'm trying to go off."

"Do you even know where the gym is retard," said Leaf with a grimace.

"I thought you did," uttered Alex with a blank expression.

"Ash is the one with the map. We'll have to ask someone for directions," sighed Leaf, as she bent over and placed her hands under her chin.

"Well what are we waiting for sista, we best be steppin!" exclaimed Alex as he stood up from the sofa and extended a hand out to Leaf with the intention of helping her up.

Leaf took his hand with a smile, appreciating the gesture before answering, "Why do you talk like you're black occasionally?"

Alex helped her up as he looked at her with an incredulous expression, "What the hell are you talking about?"

* * *

Back at the Cerulean gym we find our hero standing in the trainer's box, a mere seconds away from his gym battle with the vicious Misty.

The battlefield was the same massive pool that the three 'older' sensational sisters held their water show in. Ash and Misty stood on two floating platforms on opposite sides. The raven haired trainer was extremely curious to how they remained so stable. The rest of the battle field was rather simple, spread out throughout the rest of the pool were more identical platforms which were necessary for pokemon that could only move on land.

"Two on two, first one to have both of their pokemon knocked unconscious loses!" bellowed Misty from across the water field.

"Sounds good, I'm ready when you are!" exclaimed Ash, as he felt his adrenaline begin to kick in.

Misty smirked as she pulled her first pokeball out from her right pocket before enlarging it, "I was born ready!"

At this point Ash was virtually on fire, he unclipped Aria's pokeball from his belt before following Misty's lead and enlarging it.

The fiery red head cocked her arm back like she was getting ready to throw the first pitch of the World Series. Before hurling the red and white sphere into the middle of the pool she shouted, "Starmie I choose you!" rupturing from a flash of lambent red light was a large purple star-fish like pokemon. Starmie's appearance was simple yet complex, as it had several pointy limbs that protruded from its exquisite gold plated ruby core. "Hyaaaaah," shrieked the bizarre star-fish, as it entrancingly moved throughout the water, clearly ready to engage in battle.

Ash recognized Starmie as one of the several water-types that could be found across the Kanto region. But, although he was familiar with the pokemon, that didn't change the fact that he still wanted to have Dexter check it out, "**Starmie-The mysterious pokemon, its central core glows with the seven colors of the rainbow. Some people value the core as a gem. Starmie swims through the water by spinning its star-shaped body as if it were a propeller on a ship."**

With that bit of information the aspiring pokemon master had no doubt in his mind that Aria was the right choice. He proceeded to put his pokedex' away before lofting Aria's pokeball onto one of the other platforms as he spoke, "Aria, make me proud."

Materializing from her pokeball was the lustrous dragon-type, who immediately captured the attention of all four cerulean sisters.

Misty: '_Is that what I think it is_!'

Daisy: "_Oh my…._"

Violet (aka blunette): "_Now that's a surprise_."

Lily (aka pinkette): '_He sure is something.'_

The majestic serpentine pokemon looked back at her trainer, who simply gave her a subtle nod of assurance. That was all the young Dratini needed to be prepared for combat, "Tini!"

"Aria start things off with dragon rage!" shouted Ash, as he flipped his cap backwards.

The young dragon-type took a deep breath, before unleashing a strong stream of orange and purple flame in the direction of Starmie. The technique made a similar sound to that of a blow torch as it whipped across the water filled arena.

"Submerge!" countered Misty. The star-fish pokemon quickly plunged itself into the depths of the pool, narrowly avoiding Aria's attack.

"Follow it and draw it out with twister!" Dratini dove into the water immediately leaving a tiny splash in her wake.

After about thirty seconds of silence a tiny whirlpool started to form within the water. A few seconds later an angry Starmie was being expelled from the pool landing roughly on one of the platforms.

"Thunder wave!" bellowed Ash, knowing full well that if Aria could paralyze Starmie she would have a clear advantage. Aria appeared from the water delicately, before releasing a curious trickle of blue electricity.

"Stop that thunder wave with water gun!" shouted Misty intensely. The 'mysterious pokemon' intercepted Aria's attack with a powerful current of water that it conjured up from its topmost appendage.

The two attacks met head on. But, Starmie's water gun didn't extinguish Aria's thunderwave, instead the weak dribble of electricity climbed across the water effortlessly causing Misty to react. '_Shit' _"Starmie block it with rapid spin!" The water type operated instantly, using its propeller like movements to somehow successfully blow away the electricity.

"That was pretty smart Misty, you're a lot better than I thought you were going to be!" wailed an impressed Ash across the stadium.

"I could say the same thing about you!" retorted Misty with a smirk.

* * *

"Wow Misty is 'like' totally awesome!" exclaimed Violet in support of her passionate little sister.

Daisy scratched the back of her head sheepishly, "Yeah maybe we should apologize to her; what do you think Lily?"

Lily simply gave a disinterested grunt all of her attention was currently on Ash. Her eyes shimmered radiantly as she looked upon the young trainer, '_Oh my god he's like totally amazing.'_

* * *

"Starmie get in close with rapid spin, then use swift!" commanded the redhead. Following its orders Starmie started to spin at an alarming pace, before shooting itself in Aria's direction. Ash tried to react but Starmie was to fast, as it started to shower his Dratini with numerous miniscule materialized stars.

"Tini!" cried out Aria, as she was bombarded by the attack. When the assault was finished the dragoness still stood strong, but it was obvious to Ash that she was in pain.

"Hang in there Aria," encouraged Ash as he took a quick second to think over his next move, "Latch on with wrap!"

At Ash's command Aria flung herself at Starmie and abruptly latched onto the water-type as it continuously propelled itself throughout the air.

The raven haired trainer let a small smile creep to his face, "Now use thunderwave, and chain it with dragon rage!"

Aria released the powerful combination, one after the other, as she hollered, "tini! tini!"

Starmie cried out in pain as it felt the full force of the Dratini's onslaught. After a large point blank explosion Aria and Starmie were both sent hurling into the water.

The two trainers waited anxiously while both of their pokemon were still under water. After what was about a 30 second wait Starmie and Aria surfaced, both panting heavily. Ash analyzed Aria's condition carefully. He concluded that she was on her last leg, barely conscious. '_That point blank Dragon rage must have taken a lot out of her. Sometimes I forget how young she is.'_

Misty did the same, '_Starmie doesn't have much left, maybe one more attack.'_

Both trainers looked each other in the eye before shouting their next commands simultaneously.

Ash: "Dragon rage now!"

Misty: "Starmie use water gun!"

Both Starmie and Aria looked deep within themselves, before releasing all of the energy that they could muster. Both attacks met in the center of the pool colliding at a frightening pace, an explosion was unavoidable. The aftermath launched Starmie and Aria out of the battle field they both crashed hard into the gyms parallel walls, instantly knocking both of them unconscious.

Ash: "Aria!"

Misty: "Starmie!"

Shouted the two young trainers concurrently, with worry evident in both of their voices. Realizing at the same time that they were both still on the floating platforms and would have to swim in order to get to their pokemon, they retrieved their pokeballs and returned them immediately.

Ash clenched his dragon-types pokeball, "Rest now Aria. I'm so proud of you," whispered the raven haired trainer before clipping her pokeball back to his belt.

Misty interacted with her Starmies pokeball in a similar manor before shrinking it and putting it back in her pocket.

"Well Ash the first rounds a draw!" exclaimed Misty as she pointed at him from across the battle field, "It looks like this next one is for the win!"

"I guess so!" answered Ash with an authoritative clamor.

* * *

"This is 'like' so intense!" blurted Violet

"I know these two are totally amazing, I hope Misty can pull through!" shrieked an excited Daisy.

"Go Ash!" cheered an obsessed Lily

Daisy and Violet glared their sister menacingly which caused the pink haired sister to stagger back holding both her hands to her mouth. '_Maybe I should just shut up.'_

* * *

Misty was the first to make her move as she tossed her second pokeball out into the water. This time appearing from the red and white sphere was a short round bipedal pokemon. It was blue in color and had a strange spiral pattern that looked like it was scribbled on to its chest. The creature also appeared to be wearing white gloves, and its eyes sat curiously on top of its head.

'_So she chooses a Poliwhirl' _thought Ash to himself as he took out his pokedex' "**Poliwhirl-The tadpole pokemon-Capable of living in or out of water. When out of water, it sweats to keep its body slimy. When under attack, it uses its belly spiral to put the foe to sleep. It then makes its escape."**

After returning Dexter to his back pocket Ash unclipped Skylar's pokeball from his belt. '_I'm counting on you girl' _The raven haired trainer chucked his flying types pokeball straight up into the air making sure that she was released comfortably away from the water. (A/N: I decided that a flash back of Skylar's evolution wasn't necessary. All you need to know is that she evolved during training somewhere between Pewter and Mt. Moon)

"Jot!" cried the regal Skylar as she emerged from her pokeball with intensity. The normal/flying-type flapped her wings with power instantly creating a forceful current of cocky wind that smacked Misty's Poliwhirl in the face. Ash immediately understood that his pidgeotto wasn't playing around.

'_That Pidgeotto has quite the attitude.' _Misty thought to herself, as she prepared to order the first attack, "Poliwhirl knock it out of the air with Watergun!"

The tadpole pokemon unleashed a cogent stream of water in the direction of Skylar in attempt to do its masters bidding.

"Quick attack to dodge!" commanded Ash. Skylar darted out of the way of the water gun effortlessly, "Now blow it away with whirlwind!"

Skylar used her wings to create a miniature tornado. Then she sent it flying towards her opponent who frantically dove under water to dodge.

"Resurface and use water gun, don't stop until you knock it down!" Poliwhirl continued to release watergun after watergun and just like before Skylar dodged them easily.

'_This is getting me nowhere. His Pidgeotto isn't even getting tired' _thought Misty as she proceeded to come up with a new plan, "Poliwhirl rain dance!"

The water-type raised its hands up into the air, summoning an immense rain cloud that hovered just below the ceiling and extended only as far as the battlefield itself. Much to Ash's displeasure he soon found himself soaking wet, and even more importantly, Skylar was having a much harder time as she now had to fly against the rain.

'_I have to end this quickly otherwise Skylar is going to tire out,' _thought Ash to himself, as he tried to come up with a plan that could work. '_T__hat's it!' "_Skylar use twister to get it out of the water, chain with quick attack!"

Ash's pidgeotto reacted swiftly, not giving Misty and Poliwhirl a chance to react. She immediately conjured up another miniature tornado except this time she aimed it at the water.

Much like when Aria used the attack during her battle with Starmie, the twister created a colossal whirlpool that evacuated Poliwhirl from the water. Once the tad pole pokemon was in sight Skylar plummeted through the air at a formidable rate, and drove her sharp beak into the water-types stomach causing it to shout out in pain.

With the deadly combination of Skylar's twister and quick attack Poliwhirl never even had a chance. The poor guy was knocked out instantly.

Misty took a deep breath to calm herself, before returning Poliwhirl to his pokeball. Ash's reaction was much different, obviously. The raven haired boy and his pidgeotto celebrated together in a heartwarming manor as he gave his flying type a big hug, "You were great out their Skylar, I couldn't have asked for a better performance. Thank you so much!"

After the celebrating and sulking of both Ash and Misty was over, they exited the battlefield and joined Daisy, Violet, and Lily who congratulated them both on a hard fought battle.

Right after Ash was presented with the cascade badge, the four girls and the raven haired boy heard an extremely loud explosion coming from just outside the gym.

All four of them hurried outside to find an exhausted Alex and Leaf, who quickly explained that it was team rocket that stole the giant vacuum and hose from the machine shop. Apparently they were planning on blowing a hole into the side of the gym, so that they could use the stolen vacuum to suck up all of the pokemon inside.

Luckily they happened to show up at the gym just in the nick of time. The explosion that Ash and the four sisters heard was none other than team rocket being blasted off by the two young trainers from Pallet town.

Once they were finished telling their story Ash proceeded to explain to them that he had just won the cascade badge. And that he was now planning on going to the pokemon center with Misty so that they could heal their pokemon

Ash, accompanied by Misty, left Alex and Leaf at the gym so that they could battle Daisy and Violet for the cascade badge. The blonde and blunette were translucently inspired by Ash and Misty's battle and agreed to take on both challengers.

On their way to the pokemon center Ash and Misty exchanged in simple small talk, until the topic somehow shifted into Misty asking Ash to join him on the rest of his journey throughout Kanto.

Ash couldn't say no to a girl as pretty as Misty. So that day the pallet town trio gained one more travel companion, a fiery red head named Misty who's dream was to become the greatest water pokemon trainer that ever lived.

**To be continued…**

* * *

**Ash's Pokemon**

**Drogo (Charmeleon): Level 23**

**Skylar (Pidgeotto): Level 22**

**Kai (Pikachu): Level 24**

**Aria (Dratini): Level 17**

**Luna (Clefable): Level 18**

* * *

**A/N: I know I said I wasn't going to have Misty join Ash, but…..I changed my mind. I think it could be fun to have her around. **

**Question from the author: Ash's next capture will be bulbasaur. So I'm looking for a good nick name. Leave your suggestions in the review section if you want to possibly have a say in it.**

**Until Next time!**


End file.
